Kafei's New Mask
by tragicduck95
Summary: Placed 11 years after MM. After Majora's Mask is defeated, Kafei thinks that Termina is safe. Only after Link is mysteriously transported to Termina and Kafei receives a morbid gift, he finds out that he was very wrong. R&R please!
1. A Mysterious Package

Disclaimer: I do not own The Legend of Zelda or its characters!

Kafei's New Mask

Chapter one- A mysterious Package

As soon as he fell asleep, Kafei awoke to a knock on the door. He groaned and rolled onto his back. 'Maybe,' he thought, 'if I ignore them, they'll go away.' He was too tired and was intent on staying in bed. Unfortunately, the knocking continued.

"Kafei…" His wife, Anju, whacked her husband lightly on the arm. "Go get the door."

Kafei covered his eyes and yawned. "But it's too late. Who would be knocking at this hour?"

"It's 7:30 in the morning."

Snapping his head towards Anju, Kafei said, "What?" Anju made a Nmn...noise and waved for him to get up. Kafei sat up and stared intensely at the rotating clock on the wall. Indeed it was 7:30. He sighed and slid out of bed to answer the door.

"What is it?" He half-opened the door and peeked outside. A bright and cheery mail-boy was standing at his door, simply beaming.

"A package for you, sir!" the boy smiled and held out a large box. Kafei blinked. How in the name of the Great Faeries could someone be so chipper in the morning? He signed for the box and watched as the mail-boy skipped, yes skipped, down the road. Kafei shook his head and closed the door, a little too hard.

"Careful now, don't break the door. " Kafei almost threw the box through the roof at the sudden appearance of Anju. "What's in the box?"

"Dunno," Kafei yawned. "I'll open it later." He plopped the box onto the counter with an Oomph!

Anju smiled, "I hope that didn't break either." She wrapped her arms around Kafei's neck and kissed him lightly on the lips. She had to bend down a few inches; he was shorter than she was. Though he was in his thirties, he looked like a late teenager. An unfortunate mishap with a Stachild, who _just_ happened to be in possession of the dreaded Majora's Mask, left him turned into a child. He had grown since then but still looked quite young.

Kafei returned her kiss and smiled. "Make us some breakfast?"

"Sure," Anju said.

An hour and a half later, both were dressed and starting the day. Anju left to manage the inn, Kafei went down to the station where all the town soldiers met for their daily job assignments. Kafei had decided to become a soldier after meeting his adventurous friend, Link. The young boy had inspired him, helping anyone and everyone in need.

"Aye, Kafei!" he heard his name being called and instinctly turned his head in the direction.

His college, a plump fellow by the name of Leoni, came bounding his way. "Have you seen the chief today?" he asked.

"I just arrived. I haven't seen him." Kafei pushed open the wooden door of the station. There were fifteen or so men all sitting around chatting.

"Nobody has," Leoni explained. A few of the men waved at Kafei as he entered.

"Maybe he's sick."

"He was fine yesterday."

"Hmm…" Kafei glanced around the room. "Then I don't know."

There were a few more minutes of chatting, then someone stood up. "Well, if the chief won't be here today, I'll hand out the assignments." He was a scrawny man, Kafei didn't know his name.

"Ugh! Always taking charge!" Leoni started to complain about the scrawny man. Kafei wished that he would just shut up. Finally, Kafei was handed his assignment and rushed out the door. 'Thank goodness I'm away from that guy.'

He had a normal, boring assignment to stand guard at the west gate. Sighing, he leaned against the wall, slightly regretting his career choice.

"Hey, Kafei! We got the same assignment!" It was Leoni. Now Kafei was _really _regretting it.

* * *

><p>"FOR THE LOVE OF-" a frustrated scream was heard, echoing through the corridors of a complicated tunnel. A young man, around 21ish kicked a rock at the wall. "Where am I!"<p>

"Link, calm down!" hushed a glowing ball with wings. Really, if you looked closer, you could see that it was a tiny little person, a fairy.

"Navi, you calm down!" Link pointed an accusing finger at her. It had been at least two hours since they knew where the heck they were and Link was starting to get angry. A kind old man had asked Link to get rid of a 'little problem' he had in his basement. It turned out to be a little more than 'little.' First, it was only a skulltulla that had made its nest in the man's basement, but as Link even stepped near it, the floor collapsed. Now, he was stuck in some sort of tunnel system.

"Watch out! There's another one!" Navi's high-pitched voice alerted Link of a crouched over re-dead. He had almost tripped over it. The noise the fairy made alerted the undead creature and it stood up, screeching. Link held his ears and groaned as it crept closer.

"Link! Watch-"

Link regained control of his motions and swung his sword at the shriveled beast, hacking its head off. "Navi," He whispered. "SHUT UP!"

The tiny fairy flew back a few feet as the adventurer yelled in her face. "Well I was only trying to help." She sniffled.

Link sighed. "I know...I'm sorry." He frowned and held his hand to her. She lightly touched the tip of his fingers and they moved on.

It was a good thing that Navi shed light, for they were completely in darkness with no lantern. Every few feet, Navi would fly ahead to make sure that Link wouldn't fall into some sort of pit-o-doom or something of the sort. Sometimes, however, she would miscalculate and Link would have to consult to his hookshot to avoid certain death. "Navi, could you be a little more helpful?" Link said, as he hung from a root in the ceiling of the tunnel, "I mean, you-"

"Exit."

"Huh?"

"There's an exit up ahead!" Navi flew full speed ahead.

"Navi, wait for me!" Link ran after her, stumbling every few seconds. For a while, he was wondering where she was getting her silly idea from.

"Navi! Where did you go?" He called out. Then he saw a light. He exclaimed a yelp of joy and ran faster.

He stopped once the light began to get bigger.

"What..?" Link blinked at the blinding light. It was rushing towards him. He had no time to shield himself from it before it engulfed him completely.

* * *

><p>"Uhnn…"Link moaned and tried to move his body. It was so stiff, however, and every inch sent a shockwave through his muscled. Suddenly, he sat up, ignoring the pain.<p>

And whacked his head on something hard.

"Ouch!" he rubbed at his forehead, glaring at the wooden board in front of him. He turned his head to the side and came face to face with another surprise. A horse whinnied in his face. Link screamed in surprise and scrambled backwards on his hands and knees. "What the…a horse?" he rubbed his numb temples and tried to make sense of the strange situation. Only a few seconds ago, he had been lost in a tunnel. Now he was in some musty old barn. Still confused and dazed, he stumbled around the barn, looking for the exit. Once he found the doors, he fell onto them. The force of his fall opened them, and now Link was staring out into a busy town filled with hustling people.

Link shut the door, and opened it again, just to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. He wasn't. With a heaving sigh, he walked from the barn and made his way down the street. "Where am I now?" He asked himself. The place looked oddly familiar to him. He roamed the street, gazing at signs and buildings. All of the signs were written in Hylian, so he had to be in Hyrule still, right?

Suddenly, he remembered Navi. Rushing back to the barn he had found himself in only moments ago, he bumped into a woman carrying a wooden basket, knocking her and himself over.

"I'm so sorry!" He quickly gathered her scattered items and returned them to her basket.

She smiled, "It's no big deal."

Link's heart skipped a beat. Her red, slightly flipping hair, her quiet and small figure, and her smile were all remotely familiar to him. "Have…have I met you before?"

The woman considered Link for a moment. "I don't believe so. You may have seen me before though. I run the Inn just down there a ways." She pointed towards a crowded street.

"Ah." Link stared down the end of the road. He was starting to get freaked out with all of these things sparking hidden memories.

"Well good day to you sir! I have to be getting back to work!" she hummed and trotted off.

Link watched her for a second, the turned back to the barn where he was met with an angry Navi.

"How dare you just leave me like that! Why I out to-"

"Navi…do you know where we are?" Link glanced around the town once more.

Navi stopped her fuming and spun around a few times. "No."

"Oh how confusing." Linked sighed. "It seems as if we are in Hyrule…but then again it doesn't…but then _again, _it all looks familiar. I feel as if I have been here before."

Navi bounced up and down a few times, "Well I've never been here, so you must have not been with me."

"But I've always been with you. Everywhere…except." Link's eyes widened with realization. "It can't be..." He turned and started to walk towards the center of the town. Once in the square, he looked up at the sky. The moon was slightly visible as it was begging to turn dark. "It can't be..." Link repeated as he saw the crooked smile on the face of the moon. He snapped his head back towards the city.

"Termina?"

* * *

><p>"So anyway, I says to him..blah blah blah bladity blah." This was pretty much all Kafei heard Leoni said. He had been talking nonstop for over an hour. Kafei wanted to jump right into the valley of Ikana Canyon, not caring what dangerous creatures lie below.<p>

"Mr. Kafei?" another soldier appeared. Kafei stared at him pleadingly. The soldier began to tell him about some disturbance over in the north part of town and that he should go check it out. Kafei immediately accecepted the request. He nearly ran away from the west gate. A little voice in the back of his mind told him that he shouldn't be so excited because whatever 'disturbance' this was could be very dangerous. Kafei metaphorically told the voice to shut up and that anything would be better than Leoni's constant babbles.

"Hey, Kafei!" a soldier called him over. There were two soldiers talking with an old little man.

"What's going on?" Kafei asked.

"This man claims that someone broke into his barn."

"Out of it actually!" The man's voice was old and rough. "I didn't see the feller come in but I heard some screaming and saw 'em walk out. Such a strange look on his face! Like he was confused and didn't know where he was. Like one of them psycho people." He made a looping motion with his finger around his ear, implying that the person was crazy.

"Which way did he go?"

"That'er way." The man pointed towards the town square.

"What did he look like?"

"He had a dirty blonde head and was wearing some reeeeal strange green clothin'. Like some sorta fantasy book hero. An' he had some sorta glowin ball with wings with 'em!"

Kafei and the two soldiers exchanged glances and went to investigate. No matter how silly the request, they were supposed to follow it. "Shouldn't be too hard to find," One of the soldiers joked.

Once in the town square, the three stopped. Just up ahead, the man described was seen, holding his head in his hands.

"What the…that old man wasn't kidding! There he is!" a soldier began to unsheathe his sword. Kafei stopped him.

"Now wait, don't run at him swinging your sword around. We'll talk to him first." He led the way. "Excuse me, sir."

The man spun around to face Kafei. Instantly, Kafei recognized his face, and his stunning blue eyes. He almost had a heart attack.

"Link!"

"Kafei?" Link lowered his eyes. "I almost want to say that I'm surprised to see you. But since it's your world and all…I've had enough surprises for the day."

One of the soldiers elbowed Kafei in the chest. "You know this weirdo?"

"Excuse me?" Link placed a firm hand on his hip and raised his eyebrows at the soldier.

Kafei replied, "Sure do."

"Kafei!" Link gave him a hurt look.

"Well! What by the holy name of the gods are you doing here? And _why _are you still wearing that stupid green outfit?

"For your information, this is not that same outfit. It's a replica." Link nodded, quite sure of himself. "I have more just like it."

Kafei shook his head, "That still doesn't answer my first question."

"I have no idea why I'm here. One minute I'm in Hyrule and the next I'm not."

Kafei and the soldiers stood in silence for a moment.

"What?" Kafei asked.

"Hyrule?" The two soldiers chimed together.

"Can't you see that I'm obviously taking care of this? Away with you!" Kafei shooed the curious soldiers. They mumbled at bit, but eventually wandered off. "Ok..so wherever this Hyrule place is...you managed to just end up here?"

Link glanced over at Navi who had been remarkably quiet this entire time. "I'm being honest Kafei. I don't know how it happened."

Kafei sighed. With a sudden whoosh, the lanterns were lit in the square. It was officially nighttime. "Come back to my house. We'll try to figure this out."

* * *

><p>Kafei acted as if he was seeing Navi for the first time. "That's not Tatl is it?" he pointed at the levitating fairy.<p>

"No. This is Navi."

Suddenly, Navi hovered in front of Link's face. "Who is this Tatl? Are you cheating on me with another fairy?" she fumed.

"Woah!" Link put his hands out in front of him.

Kafei felt as if he shouldn't have asked that. "Well anyway…here we are." He gestured towards a normal sized citizen household. Simultaneously, Anju arrived.

"Oh, Anju. You remember Link, don't you?" Kafei asked her.

She cocked her head to one side. "Oh yes!" she exclaimed, "I remember now! What are you doing here? I thought you went...home?"

Link shook his head, "This is as confusing to me as it is to you."

"Well," Kafei said, opening the door, "We-"

He cringed when the door was open. Everyone did.

"What _is _that smell?" Navi hid behind Link.

Kafei shook his head. Holding his hand over his nose, he stepped inside. They searched for the source.

Anju found it, "Oh this package!" she pointed towards the large box on the table that had never been opened. "Could it have been raw meat?"

"Who would send you raw meat?" Link asked, eyeing the box suspiciously.

"Whatever it is, I'm throwing it out." Kafei took two rags out of the drawer and picked up the now soggy box. When he lifted it and held it over the floor, the bottom broke and the contents spilled out.

Link gasped. Navi and Anju screamed. Kafei stood, dumbfounded.

Splattered onto the floor, was a rotting, severed head. Attached to it, was a jewel encrusted, beautiful red and black mask.

* * *

><p>So what did you think? Yeah it all seems really confusing until then end when BAM! Lol. So anyway, please please please leave a reveiw. I'm open to all suggestions. If you see something that could be fixed, please tell me so I can fix it! =) But no flamers please and thank you.<p> 


	2. The Mask

Kafei's New Mask

Chapter 2: The Mask

Kafei sat on the floor of their living room. Cross-legged, with Anju's head in his lap. He held a fan in his hand, waving it across her face. A small sound escaped from her mouth and her eyes started to open. Kafei smiled down at her. Anju blinked a few times, then stared into the eyes of her husband.

"Did I faint?" she asked.

Kafei nodded. Anju took in a deep breath and put her hand across her forehead, "Oh my..." she tried to sit up.

"Careful," Kafei warned and helped her into a sitting position.

"What a shock," Anju commented and shook her head lightly, "Do you know who the head belongs to?"

Kafei breathed in, and let out a loud sigh. "It's the chief down at the station." No wonder he didn't show up for work.

Anju frowned. "Who would do such a thing?"

"That's what we're trying to find out." Kafei took a long look at Anju. "Here, why don't you sit on the couch? I'll bring you a glass of water." He helped Anju to the couch and proceeded to the kitchen, where Link was standing, examining the head.

"Why do you think he's wearing that mask?" Link asked, hearing Kafei enter.

"Who knows? What are we going to do with the head?" Kafei reached up to grab a glass from the cupboard.

"Well," Link started, "We could take it down to the station…maybe they-"

"Link, the head belongs to the chief. What are _they _going to do about it? They'll all probably freak out or something."

Link shook his head. Kafei started to fill the glass he was holding with water. He turned around to walk from the kitchen, but stopped. He stared at the small, glowing fairy hovering above Link's head. It gave him an idea.

"We should ask the great fairy that lives here."

Link looked at him out of the corner of his eye, "What will _she _do about it?"

"I really don't know. But whenever something strange happens, she always seems to know what's going on."

"Right," Link said, "It's better than doing nothing.

Kafei went to the living room, and handed Anju the water.

"Anju, we're going to see the great fairy. Will you be alright here? Maybe you should stay with your grandmother." He said.

"No, I'll be alright." She shook her head, staring into the glass. "Just…please be careful."

"We will," Kafei said. He kissed her on the forehead, and they left with the head in a wooden crate.

* * *

><p>"This is heavy…" Kafei complained.<p>

"I'll carry it for a while." Link suggested and took the crate from Kafei. Navi floated down and landed on top of the crate. "Hey, get off!" Link swiped the crate to the side so Navi flew into the air again.

Kafei sighed. "This is all so strange. First you appear out of nowhere and now this freaky head with a mask. What next?"

"Be thankful the moon isn't falling," Link chuckled.

"Link, this is no laughing matter! A man was murdered and his head was _mailed _to my house!"

"Ok sorry…"

They arrived at the Great Fairy's fountain, and immediately knew something was wrong. The cave was completely dark, and there was no water, like there should have been.

"Link…" Navi whispered. "I don't like this place."

"I'm not sure I do either." Link handed the crate to Kafei. He walked out into the middle of the cave, where the Great Fairy should have been. He bent down and touched the ground, grabbing a handful of dirt. He opened his hand and let the dry substance pour through his fingers. "This has been dry for a while."

"What could have happened?" Kafei asked from behind him.

"I have no idea." Link turned around to face Kafei. The light from the cave opening suddenly went out , and became visible again. Kafei looked behind him, seeing nothing.

"Kafei!" Link yelled, only seconds before a large creature snatched Kafei off the ground. He yelled in surprise, and dropped the crate which smashed against the cave floor, sending the head rolling. Two huge, yellow eyes slipped open, and stared at Kafei hungrily. The creature opened its mouth, showing a number of sharp teeth that were white enough to see in the dark.

"Kafei!" Link yelled again and ran to aid his friend. He was knocked back by a huge force. When he slid to a stop, he pulled out a lantern. "It's too dark to see _anything." _ He lit the lantern, and stared in horror at the massive creature that had a hold of Kafei. It looked like a snake, only it had arms. The arms were more like tentacles, though. Its long tail, decorated with deadly spikes, stretched around the entire room.

"Oh dear Fayore…" Link mumbled.

"Link you have to help him!" Navi screamed.

Link hopped up again, and bolted towards the creature. It tried to knock Link back again, but he jumped onto its tail. Link took his sword and jammed it into the monster's tail. It gave a loud roar, and dropped Kafei to the floor. Now, since it was mad, the monster brought its head to Link's face and growled. Link was now its new prey.

Kafei sat up, rubbing the back of his head. He saw Link and the creature that was about to eat him. He gasped, and shot to his feet. Sliding a bit on the blood that surprisingly still spilled from the severed head, Kafei grabbed the head by the hair, and chucked it at the giant snake thing. It smacked the monster in the face. Confused, it snapped its head towards the vile object that rolled around on the floor. The monster produced a giant tongue and licked its lips. Within a second, the chief's head was off the floor and in the monster's mouth. There was a sickening sound as the monster chewed and swallowed.

This gave Link enough time to hop off the monster's tail and prepare to strike again. The monster paused, and began to cough. It turned its head towards Link and hacked up a chunk of black goo. It hit Link, along with the mask that smacked link right on the forehead. He fell backwards. The mask made a clinking sound as it fell to the ground.

"Ugh…" Link held out his arms and examined the black substance covering him.

"Link!" Kafei ran to him. The monster shook its head and growled at the two men.

Navi appeared from behind Link. "What are we going to do…?" her voice shook.

"Fight it," Link answered, "That's what I've always done." He got to his feet.

"Wait…you can't…not alone..." a weak voice emitted from behind them. The monster suddenly roared, like the voice made it unhappy.

Link turned, to see a faint light appear in the middle of the cave.

"The Great Fairy!" Kafei exclaimed. Though it had no definite shape, they knew who it was.

It was silent for a moment, then it whispered, "Use the mask."

Link glanced at the mask on the floor. The monster, who they had sort of forgotten about, whacked Link with its tail, sending him flying. He hit the wall.

"Ah! Link!" Kafei exclaimed.

"Link!" Navi flew to him, and nudged him.

"Kafei…" The great Fairy whispered. It sent a cold chill down Kafei's spine. She knew his name. "Use the mask…"

Kafei coughed, "Me?"

The Great Fairy spoke no more. The monster crept towards Link, who was using his sword to get up off the floor. Kafei could see he was injured. He took a step forward, towards link, but stopped. He frowned and stared at the mysterious mask on the floor.

The monster smashed its tail into Link again.

Kafei had no more time to waste. He snatched the mask off the floor and held it in front of his face.

"What am I supposed to do?" He asked to no one in particular. His answer was a few black strings extending from the back of the mask, and attaching themselves to Kafei's face. "Wah!" the mask snapped onto Kafei's face. Next, Kafei felt excruciating pain fly though his body, enough to make him fall to his knees.

He blacked out for a moment. When he regained consciousness, he felt something on his arms. "What…what is this?" He was now wearing gauntlets, the same color as the mask, swirling red and black. Kafei tried to stand up, but he felt very heavy. The mask was still attached to his face, and it seemed to weigh a lot.

A scream from Link brought him back to his senses. Kafei snapped his head up, and saw that the monster had a firm hold of Link in its slimy tentacle. "Link!" Kafei scrambled to his feet and ran towards the monster. Navi was banging herself against the monster, trying feebly to make it let Link go.

"You put him down right now!" She yelled.

Link squirmed in the tight grasp of the tentacle. He stopped when he saw Kafei down below. "Kafei?" He wanted to say more but the monster gripped him even tighter, cutting off his speech _and _his circulation.

A rush of anger towards the monster filled Kafei's body. He felt the anger circulate through his body, trying to find an exit. Unintentionally, Kafei waved his arms towards the monster, and he felt something leave his body. At first he thought his arms had come off because some of the weight he had felt earlier broke off. He put his arms in front of him and examined them. Nope, still there. He wasn't paying attention when the monster roared, its tentacle was sliced off, and Link fell to the ground. Kafei only saw two sharp objects flying towards him.

"Ah!" he crossed his arms in front of him.

He felt the weight reattach to his arms. With only a second of confusion, Kafei jumped back when he saw that the sharp objects were blades, and they had dug themselves into his arms. He gasped when he thought that he should feel pain, but he didn't. In fact, the blades were connected to the gauntlets, in some sort of holster.

Kafei heard his name being called, and looked up, just as the monster was about to snap its jaws around him. He jumped back, further than he had expected to, and the monster got a mouth full of dirt. Kafei stumbled a bit as he landed on his feet. 'I can't believe...I did that.' Kafei took another look at his arms. The blades were still there.

"Hoooaaaah!" Link screamed and jumped onto the monster's back. He climbed up to its head and pushed his sword through its skin. He pulled it out and stuck it in again. The monster roared and screamed frantically, whipping its head this way and that. Link lost his balance and fell off, but grabbed onto the monster's neck. Link's sword was still embedded in the monster's skull, but somehow it was still alive.

Link still needed help.

Without giving a bit of thought, Kafei rushed forward, and threw out his arms. The blades dislodged themselves from his gauntlets, and flew towards the monster at high speed. They hit it directly through the heart, and ripped out of its back. The monster gave one last roar of defeat, and fell to the ground. The cave rumbled, then was silent.

Kafei stood for a moment, then held out his arms again to catch the blades. They stuck back into the holsters on his gauntlets.

"What just happened?" Link asked, staring at Kafei. Kafei shook his head. Then, he tried to remove the mask from his face.

"It's stuck." He said. Link trotted over and took a hold of the mask. He pulled backwards. Kafei pulled at it also. Link suddenly let go and Kafei fell on his back. "Owch! Hey!"

The room illuminated, and the Great Fairy appeared.

Kafei, Link, and Navi stared at her in awe.

"Thank you," She said, in a now strong and beautiful voice, "For defeating that vile creature." She floated in the air. Water began to flow from the center of the cave. It spread out to fill the cave. When it touched the monster, the monster disinagrated into black smoke. Link's sword clanged onto the ground. The Great Fairy placed her head on her hands and stared at them. "If you have not already guessed, a new evil is arising."

"No...we didn't guess." Navi said sarcastically. Link hushed her.

"That is why we called you here, Link. You and Kafei must work together."

Link raised his chin a bit. Kafei's eyes darted around the room, before settling again on the Great Fairy. "Why me?"

The Great Fairy smiled at him, "Kafei. Just like Link was chosen to save his world. You have been chosen to save yours. That mask you are wearing, it comes from and ancient tomb. Recently, the tomb was discovered. A man took the mask from the face of a great warrior. When he placed it upon his own face, he was killed. He was not chosen."

"Great!" Kafei exclaimed, "This mask has been on _two_ dead people. And now It's on_ my _face. Just great." He pulled at it again, with no luck. He suddenly gasped. "That's why the chief…he must have discovered it…"

The Great Fairy nodded, a look of sadness in her eyes. "The mask was not meant to be discovered. It awoke an ancient evil. But now there is no stopping it. Unless you two agree…to work together to save Termina."

Link folded his arms, "That's fine and all, but it still doesn't really explain why I'm here."

Another voice came from behind them. "Because, Link, the last time you were here, a connection was made between Hyrule and Termina. If Termina is destroyed, Hyrule will be too."

Link turned around swiftly at the familiar voice.

"Tatl?"

* * *

><p>Hey it's me again! Sorry for the slow updates. I'm actually writing a real novel right now and this story is me taking a break from it. I promise I'll finish this fanfic though! Anyway, please leave me a comment! =D<p> 


	3. The History and the Reason

Kafei's New Mask

Chapter Three

The History and the Reason

Long ago, there was a world drenched in chaos. The men in that world had strayed from their duties to worship their gods. Little by little, the men stopped caring about their makers, their givers of life. They began to worry more about themselves. They harvested their crops without laying any offering. They killed animals for sport. They even tore down the most precious temples. Displeased, the gods sent a warning to the most important king in the world: If they would not stop their foolishness and convert back to their old ways, they would be destroyed. The king decided to ignore this warning.

The gods were enraged. They sent armies upon armies of ferocious beasts to do their bidding. Even with their quickly falling numbers of troops, the men would not admit defeat. They became angered at the gods and decided to fight even harder. The battles raged on for a century. The gods finally decided to end the fighting, with the end of the world. One goddess in particular stood against it.

She pleaded with her brothers and sisters to give the men a chance. She loved the world they watched over more than any god ever had. She had no intention of letting it fall. Her siblings would not have it. They told her that she was as foolish as the men and nothing she did would change their minds. The goddess then began to explain about years past. How the men used to worship them to no end. How there used to be peace.

The gods considered this, and decided to give her one chance. If she could get one man to prove himself worthy, they would not destroy the world. At once, the goddess left the realm of the gods to find that one man. After days of searching endlessly across the world, she came upon a city that was under siege by the beasts. Every man in that city had taken part in the effort to fight them.

Every man, except for one. One man stood alone on a high hill. He stared down at the fighting with tears in his eyes. As the goddess came closer, he fell to his knees and pleaded to the gods to stop the fighting. At once, the goddess knew that he was the one. She revealed herself to him, and explained how he would have to be the one to save his world. A legend told of a mystical mask that had special powers. If the man could find this mask and bring it back to the goddess, the gods would be pleased. The man accepted, even though he knew that the path to find the mask was an impossible one. No man had ever left to find the mask and returned.

The goddess waited for the man's return. She waited for days. The gods soon became impatient and told the goddess that they had waited long enough. The goddess could do nothing as the other gods unleashed a terrible darkness upon the world. As all hope seemed lost, a bright light pierced through the sky. The man had returned, wearing the mask upon his face. He was weary and held many wounds, but he made one last effort to save his world.

At the point where the gods had descended from the heavens, the darkness was thickest. The man removed the mask from his face and held it to the darkness. Slowly, a wind began to form. The darkness swirled and swirled around the man and the mask. It swirled faster and faster. Then the mask began to shine. It shone with a light so powerful, the darkness was sucked into it. The man struggled as the darkness shook, trying to escape, but it finally stopped. The man then turned to his world and held the mask to it. The mask shone again and took the darkness from the world. The beasts turned back to normal, the men ceased their fighting.

The gods asked the goddess how she knew this man could be the one to save the world. The goddess answered that the man felt differently about the world. He was the one man with righteousness in his heart. That alone made it possible for him to conquer the mask and the darkness. The gods accepted the man for caring about the world and left for the heavens. The goddess stayed behind to talk to the man. As she came to him, he collapsed onto the ground. She tried to help him, but the darkness had broken him.

Without another word, the man died. The mask in his hand. The goddess placed the mask on his face and buried him deep in the ground in a beautiful tomb. When she took one last look at him, she noticed the mask had changed. It was darker and looked ominous. With her godly power, the goddess placed a seal on the mask.

"Thank you, brave knight. Your efforts have not been wasted. May you rest in peace. If the mask will lay upon your face, Termina will be at peace as well."

The goddess locked the tomb, and left for the heavens. She became known as the Goddess of the Mask, always watching over the tomb, to make sure that the mask would not be disturbed.

* * *

><p>"So," Kafei said, "Since the mask was disturbed, a terrible darkness has been unleashed?"<p>

Tatl hovered over his head. "Yep. And now you have to find a way to seal it back or Termina will be destroyed."

"Well that doesn't sound very fun…" Kafei tapped on the mask. "How am I supposed to do that if it's attached to my face?"

The Great Fairy spoke with a soft voice, "It will come off after you defeat the darkness."

Kafei sighed. "This thing is going to be stuck on my face the entire time. Well, better get used to it I guess."

"That's the way to think, Kafei!" Link smacked him on the back. Kafei growled at him.

"So anyway, Tatl, just how are we supposed to re-seal this evil?" Link asked, completely ignoring Kafei's warning.

"Well…" Tatl flew around their heads.

The great fairy spoke up once more. "The seal the Goddess put on the mask broke into four pieces, you must find these pieces and place them back onto the mask."

Kafei coughed. "You mean, the seal _literally _broke into pieces? I imagined that being a metaphor or something."

"Yes."

Link thought for a moment, then smiled. "Well that sounds easy enough! Let's get to it!"

"Wait," the great fairy said, "You don't know where the pieces lie."

"Oh…right. Well where are they?"

"We do not know either."

Link and Kafei nearly fell over. "What!" they both exclaimed.

"Do not fret, I know where you can get the information."

The two men sighed in relief.

"There is a man who owns a mask shop in the town. For the longest time, he has been an expert on masks. Especially masks with stories behind them Go to him, and you may learn the whereabouts of the seals…"

Link swallowed loud enough for them all to hear. "I have a very….very bad feeling about this."

* * *

><p>Link's fist hovered before a large, wooden door. His hand trembled a bit as it came closer. Suddenly, his hand dropped.<p>

"C'mon, Link! Just knock already!" Kafei threw his arms in the air.

"I can't do it!" Link cried. "You have no idea! I had nightmares for week after meeting this guy!"

"That was when you were ten, jeeze man up!"

Link took in a deep, calming breath. 'I can do this…I can do this…' Link's mind raced as his hand once again inched closer to the door….and closer….and closer.…and…

The door flung open.

"Why hello! I have been expecting you…." The Happy Mask Salesman loomed in the doorway, rubbing his pale hands together.

* * *

><p>Heya! Sorry it's been awhile since an update! I spent HOURS thinking about how I would write this chapter DX. It took a while but I finally got it how I wanted it so I hope you enjoy! New chapter will come soon so don't worry!<p> 


	4. Salesman of Doom

Kafei's New Mask

Chapter 4

Salesman of Doom

A small whimper escaped from Link's mouth. Kafei rolled his eyes and crossed his arms as Link swiftly took a step to the side and hid behind Kafei. "Link, come on! You can't be afraid of this guy. You saved and entire world from devastation and destruction and you're afraid of a man from a mask shop?" The Happy Mask Salesman nodded and smiled even bigger, if that was possible. When Kafei looked back at the salesman, a chill ran through his body. 'Well maybe….' Kafei thought.

"Come in, come in! I was told you would be here soon…" Kafei and Link shared a glance. Navi hid inside of Link's hat and Tatl continued to float over Kafei's head, unaffected. Link took a deep breath and walked through the door after the others. "Please have a seat! I'll get what we need here…" The Happy Mask Salesman disappeared into a back room.

"But there aren't any chairs…" Link commented. He looked to Kafei for an answer, who shrugged.

"I suppose that-"

"Here we are!" Heart attacks were almost a bigger problem than the mask when The Happy Mask Salesman mysteriously popped up behind the counter. He was holding a yellowed paper, rolled up and tied with a black string. Holding their chests, Link and Kafei slowly made their way to the counter. "This right here is allllll you need to finish your quest." He untied the string and slammed the paper onto the counter. The paper was old indeed. A picture of the mask was on it, with four lines extending from it. Attached to the lines were four pieces that looked like they came from a puzzle. They were the exact size and shape of the mask, only they were outlines, like they were meant to be clear. Along the top of each piece was an inscription.

Link cleared his throat. "What language is this? I don't recognize it."

"It's an ancient text. Obviously not used anymore. Anyway, it says here that when the seal was first placed, it had directions to where its pieces would fall when it was broken. Those four little writings above here tell where they are."

"I feel…" Kafei scratched his forehead but unfortunately the mask was in the way so he ended up scratching the mask. "that the gods knew this would happen. It seems like they planned this."

Link frowned. "Maybe they did. The gods are mysterious creatures."

"That'll be seven thousand rupees."

They all turned their attention back to the salesman. "What?"

"For the paper!"

"But!" Navi bounced up and down nervously. "We don't know what it says!"

"Neither do I!" The Happy Mask Salesman said cheerfully.

"You just read it." Kafei reminded him.

"Oh silly me! That price also includes this!" The Happy Mask Salesman held up something shiny and clear. It looked like…

They all felt like their eyes had popped out of their heads.

"Wh…I don't…" Kafei stumbled over his words.

"You _have_ a piece of the seal?" Link slammed his hands onto the counter and gave the salesman a crazed look.

"Oh yes…I found it earlier this morning in the canyons!" He held up the piece and laughed cheerfully.

They didn't even bother to ask why he had been there.

"So, does seven thousand seem like a good deal? Hmm?" The Happy Mask Salesman tilted his head to one side, and rubbed his hands together, smiling inhumanly.

* * *

><p>Walking down the main street of Clock Town with their wallets empty, Link and Kafei sighed.<p>

"Doesn't he know we're trying to save the world? He didn't have to charge us for it…" Kafei said, turning over the seal in his hands. The seal felt like it was made of glass. Kafei made sure to be extra careful so it didn't break.

"At least we have it, you know." Link stuffed his empty brown drawstring pack into his pocket. They were on their way back to Kafei's house. Kafei knew he had to go on this journey, but he wasn't going to do it without saying something to Anju.

"I'd like to talk with Anju before we leave."

"Of course," Link said. "I wonder what she'll say about that mask.

* * *

><p>They arrived at Kafei's house to find the door had been broken in. At once, Kafei knew something was wrong. "Anju!" Kafei ran through the house frantically, looking for Anju, who was nowhere to be found. "Anju!"<p>

"Link…" Navi settled on his shoulder, facing in the direction of the north wall of the house. Link swallowed.

"Kafei," He called. Kafei walked slowly around the corner and looked at what they were looking at.

"What…oh."

The wall was dripping with blood. A message was written in it: Give up the mask, or she will perish."

Kafei was frozen, staring at the blood. Tatl tapped his head a few times, with no response. "Helloooo.." she flew back and forth in front of his face, trying to get his attention. Kafei's hands came up to his face. Tatl flew away suddenly, with the fear of being smacked or squished. Instead, Kafei took hold of the sides of his mask. He pulled as hard as he could, stumbling under his own force.

"Kafei!" Link grabbed both of his arms and tired to stop him. "Kafei!" he yelled louder. Kafei finally calmed down. "Right now, there isn't anything we can do," Link said as nicely as he could.

By then, Kafei was shaking with anger. "This mask…is ruining my life!" He yelled out.

"I know.." Link said sympathetically, "But we have to find the other pieces of the seal."

Kafei sighed. He rubbed the side of the mask, feeling along the edges of the sparkling stones. "You're right," he said.

"At least.." Link trailed off, glancing back at the blood-covered wall. "At least we know…or at least hope to know..that she isn't dead."

Kafei nodded grimly, "For now."

They collected any supplies they thought they might need, and left town as fast as they could.

* * *

><p>Le sigh...Sorry this chapter is kinda short. Also it took much much longer than I hoped. =P School just started back up again and I haven't had much time to write. Anywayz...please R&amp;R! And enjoy ;D<p> 


	5. Just a Psychotic Midget

Kafei's New Mask

Chapter 5

When Kafei and Link exited the town, Link took note of the guarding soldier who didn't say anything to him. 'I don't look like a little kid now, do I?' Link mocked in his head.

"Link! What are you doing?" Kafei snapped.

Link spun around. He had stopped and was snickering at the soldier, who was giving him an odd look. Link blushed, embarrassed and ran to catch up with Kafei. "Don't worry about it," he said as he took the lead out of Clock Town.

"Okay…where should we go first?" Kafei asked, taking the map out and staring at it. He tried to make sense of all the writings let alone the places on the map. He turned it over and over. Meanwhile, Link had taken on staring down the field.

"I think we should start there," he pointed towards the familiar entrance to the swamp. He then flipped the map over again in Kafei's hands and pointed to it on the map.

"Do you know how to get there?"

"Yeah, all we have to do is-"

"Hey! Do you hear something?" Link winced at Navi's annoying little 'hey' she always made when she wanted his attention. He tried so hard not to say that they only thing he could hear was her shrill little voice.

"Nope. You must be crazy," Tatl remarked, her words harsher than Link's would have been.

Navi flew over to Tatl and gave her a slight shove. "That wasn't nice!"

"Oh yeah? Well-"

"I really do hear something." Kafei lifted his head from the map and listened intently.

Link crossed his arms and looked around. "I don't hear anything."

"Shh!" Kafei put his hand out to silence him. "It's…coming from above us."

Suddenly, Link could hear it. Though it was slightly hard to hear over the bickering of the two fairies. It sounded like…screaming. As they stood and listened, it got louder…and louder…until Link realized what it was. "Oh shoot! Kafei, look out!"

"Hoooooooooooooooooooof!" Kafei was impacted by a falling object, followed by a large red sheet of some sort. Link grimaced at seeing his friend taken down, and ran to help him. He grabbed the red sheet and tugged on it, pulling it loose. Underneath, he saw Kafei lying on the ground, taken down by no other than an o-so-familiar little green man.

"K-kafei…are you ok?"

Kafei shook his head, clearing the blur. Then he grabbed what was covering him and threw it off with force Link had never seen before. "What just happened? Are we being attacked?" He threw himself into a protective stance, ready to battle.

"No…it's just..."

The little green man, having been thrown to the side, suddenly stood up and tilted his head at Link. "Oooooh! Mr. Fairy! How nice it is to see you again!" Link smacked his forehead. Tingle was about the last person he wanted to see in this world. "I've missed you!" Tingle began to dance around Link and Kafei. Kafei gave Link a very puzzled look and pointed at Tingle.

"What…is this some sort of sub-race I should know about?" Kafei asked.

"Nope. Just a psychotic midget," Link said matter-of-factly.

"Just look at his attroachus choice of clothing!" Navi flew in front of Tingle, making him stop in his tracks. "Link, do you really know such a person?"

Link blinked at Navi. "J-jeeze Navi….that's a little harsh. And yeah I do." He added under his breath, "unfortunately."

Tingle tilted his head to the side, then to the other side, then back to the middle. "Why hello, fellow fairy!" Tingle reached his hand out to Navi, possibly to shake her hand, but instead knocked her aside. Startled, Navi flew to Link and hid behind him.

Kafei took the giant red sheet in his hands, "What is this," he said, looking annoyed.

"That's my balloon!" Tingle threw his hands into the air cheerfully.

Kafei stared at him intently for a moment. "I want to know nothing else," he said bluntly and began to walk away.

"You and me both," Tatl flew alongside him.

"W-wait Kafei! Tingle we really have to go, it was…nice seeing you again!" He waved goodbye to the smiling little freak and once again ran after Kafei.

"You know the weirdest people," Kafei stated.

"Don't worry about it…"

* * *

><p>The two sloshed through the murky water, checking the map ever so often. They knew that the seal was somewhere in the swamp, but they had no idea where.<p>

"Ugh this humidity is horrible!" Navi complained, sitting on Link's shoulder.

"Oh be quiet! You don't have to walk through this stuff!" Kafei snapped at her, lifting his leg to show her his dripping boot.

"Hey, enough bickering. We have to find this seal remember?" Link reminded them. "We can't just walk through the mud all day. We need to start somewhere…" Link put the map in front of his face, but quickly removed it when he spotted a building sticking out of the swamp. "There!" He sloshed as quickly as he could towards it.

"Wait! I can't run in this nasty water!"

"At least it isn't poison!" Link yelled back to Kafei, who had stopped.

"…poison?"

"C'mon!"

* * *

><p>Link and Kafei climbed the ladder to the little hut, Kafei slipping once and Link having to save him. When they finally got to the top, they were greeted with a locked door.<p>

"Oh great! It's locked! What was here anyway?" Kafei asked, trying pointlessly to scrape the muck from his shoes.

"A couple of witches. I thought they could help us."

"Well no one is here so-"

The door flew open, hitting Tatl and Navi, sending them flying. The two fairies quickly collected themselves and flew back in anger. "Oh look at what we have here! That little boy from long ago, all grown up!" Behind the door, Kotake and Koume stood smiling at Link. Link gave them an awkward smile back. "Do you need something?" Kotake glanced past Link to look at Kafei. She gasped suddenly, seeing his mask and tried to slam the door shut. "We can't help you with anything! Good bye!" Link shoved his foot into the doorframe, stopping the swinging door.

"Ouch…wait! Don't go! We really do need your help!" Link attempted to pull the door open, but the ancient women were stronger than he thought.

"We don't help servants of Katal!" The witches were able to slam the door shut. Link swiftly turned to look at Kafei.

"Katal?" Kafei looked surprised.

Link shrugged, and turned to bang on the door. "Wait! Who is Katal! Please answer me!"

Koume opened the door an inch and peeked out. "You mean to tell me, you don't know whose mask he's wearing?"

"No, we really don't know much about it!"

Kafei stepped forward. "It attached itself to my face against my will!"

"…come inside. Quickly!" Koume opened the door long enough for the four of them to get through. She nervously glanced around outside and shut the door with force.

* * *

><p>"Katal…he came to us demanding where his mask was…he was such an evil looking man. He had black hair, black as the darkest night, and blood red eyes." Kotake shivered at the memory. "We were lucky he let us live, because he brought with him these hideous creatures. They seemed to have been made of pure death.<p>

Link tried to picture what pure death looked like. "Did you tell him anything?"

"We didn't know anything…that is until you showed up. I swear, if he kills us because of you!"

"Calm down please…" Koume had gotten very close to Link's face, too close for comfort.

"We won't forgive you," the witches said together, making themselves seem even creepier.

"We're trying to stop him. But to do so, we need these." Link fished out the piece of the seal that they had. "There are three more."

Kotake and Koume's eyes got wide with realization. "We have seen one before! Yes we gave it to the Deku king to keep safe! It seemed very important."

"It is! It is very important! Thank you so much! And we'll do whatever we can to keep this…Katal character away from the swamp." Link jumped from where he had been sitting and motioned for the others to follow him. "We need to hurry."

"Why in such a hurry, young ones? Do not be reckless, or he may find you." The witched chimed.

Kafei quickly turned to face them. "He has my wife."

* * *

><p>"Wow. So I guess we know this guy's name is Katal. Well I didn't really know it was just one guy at all. I expected it to be some sort of floating mass of darkness or something," Link rambled on, talking more to himself than anybody. They were on their way to the Deku Palace to talk to the Deku King. Luckily, it wasn't far away. "I wonder if he remembers me."<p>

"Link..." Kafei tried to get his attention but Link was off in his own little world talking to himself.

"Hm. What kind of a name is Katal anyway, I wonder."

"Link!"

"What!" Link said, surprised.

"The Palace is burning."

* * *

><p>Hurrah! Chapter 5! I hope you all enjoy reading!<p> 


	6. The Swamp People

Kafei's New Mask

Chapter 6

"Hello? Hello! Is anybody still here!" Link called out over the roar of the flames, hoping he could find survivors. He quickly covered his mouth and began coughing uncontrollably as he inhaled the black smoke.

"Link!" Kafei ran up to him. "We have to get out of here! This entire place is going to collapse soon!"

Between coughs, Link was able to get out, "We have...to find them."

"But we don't even know if they're still here!" Kafei had barely gotten his sentence out before Navi and Tatl frantically called them over.

"Look here!"

"Help, help us!"

They could hear faint voices coming from beyond a thick wall of smoke. Kafei and Link looked around, but they couldn't see anything. There was no way they could get anywhere with the smoke surrounding them.

"Link!" Suddenly, a bright ball of light emerged from the swirling darkness. "Link, come this way!" Navi flew around their heads to signal them to follow her. Through the help of Navi's glowing body, they were able to find their way through the smoke, and soon saw the other glowing fairy, Tatl. She bounced up and down above a locked cage stuffed with at least ten or fifteen deku.

"I knew they were here!" Link exclaimed and slid to his knees to try and open the cage. "I can't open it, it's locked!" He thought about the possibility of a small key hidden somewhere, but there was no time for that!

"Link, get out of the way!" Link turned to his companion, and ducked before he was beheaded by Kafei's sharp boomerang-like blades. The blades flew right over Link's head and smacked into the lock on the cage, breaking it into pieces. As Kafei retracted his weapon, Link scurried over and pulled the door off the cage.

"Yipee! We're free!" The deku hurried out of the cage, one by one.

"We're not out yet- my goddess! There's so many of them!" Kafei yelled as he watched the deku. Ten...fifteen...twenty..they just kept coming! "How did they all fit into that cage!"

Link grabbed Kafei's arm and pulled him along. "There's no time to think about it! We have to get _out_! Navi and Tatl will lead the way!" The two bouncing balls of light led the way for the two adventurers and the endless line of bouncing deku across the swamp and onto an island in the middle of the swamp.

* * *

><p>At the exact same time, Kafei and Link bent over and coughed their lungs out. Well at least it seemed like they did. The smoke from the burning palace had made it's way through their entire bodies. <em>Everything<em> burned. After a couple of long, pain filled moments, they finally calmed down.

"Are you two alright?" Navi asked worriedly.

"Yeah..ahem..I think we'll live." Link said, wiping the dust from his eyes. He looked back at the fire and sighed. "How did this happen?" He asked the group of Deku.

The large mass of deku made frightened noises as they looked to one another to see who would tell the story. Eventually, they tossed a single deku out into the open. The little shrub gave them an angry scowl, but proceeded. "Well, you see..a couple days ago the princess found a strange looking glass thing in the swamp."

Link shot a quick glance at Kafei, the deku went on, "After a while, a strange looking man came to our palace, and demanded the glass for himself. The princess had hidden the glass in a safe place, and told the man she didn't know where it was. So the man snatched the princess _and_ the king! He said he'd torture them into telling him where it was! Then he locked us all up and set our palace on fire!"

The deku behind him added in, "It was horrible, oh the poor princess, and the king too!"

Kafei held his chin. "Hm..." He looked over at Link. "We have to find the seal."

"But we should help the king and the princess too." Link sighed. "The princess is the only one that knows where the seal is right?"

"If that's what that glass thing was then yeah," the single deku said, "she never told us."

"Then it's decided. We find the princess first, and then we can find the seal. Um deku...guy...do you know where he took the princess?"

The single deku said, "I can take you to her."

"Really? That's surprising."

"What, why? You think I'm afraid?"

Tatl made a tsk noise. "You were shaking in your leaves!"

"Hey, puff ball! I'm not-"

"Um can we...go?" Link stepped into the conversation, wanting to stop it before it turned into a brawl. "It would be great if you would take us to the princess."

The deku jumped up, knocking Tatl to the side. She made the motion to rush back at him, but Kafei snatched her in his hand, holding her back. "Yes! We can go!"

"We'll stay here and clean up!" The swam of deku exclaimed. "We'll put out the fire too!"

Link wondered how they were going to do that, but didn't press the issue. Instead, he turned to Kafei who was watching the hyper little deku lead the way. "If we find the princess, theres a good chance we could find...him as well."

"Yeah. Katal."

* * *

><p>"Hey, Deku! What did this weird man look like?" Kafei and Link were sloshing their way through the swamp while the deku skipped across the water effortlessly.<p>

The deku jumped onto a lilly pad. "Well, he was really short and plump."

"What!" Link stopped, making Kafei bump into him. "That's...not at all what I imagined..."

"What else can you tell us about him?" Kafei said, making his way around the frozen Link.

"Hmm.." The deku hopped off the lilly pad and skipped over to them. "He was wearing green, like you, Link. Oh but there was red on his bottom half."

Link's eye involuntarily twitched.

"He had rosy cheeks."

Kafei sniffed. "Isn't he describing..."

"And he had the weirdest red blob attached to his back." The deku stopped moving around, having finished his description.

Kafei and Link gave each other the strangest look. "It's...Tingle?"

* * *

><p>"There's now way that can be right!" Link bent over the deku with crazy eyes.<p>

"Y-yeah! Tingle is...well I don't think he would be capable of..." Kafei trailed off. Come to think of it, Kafei didn't know much about Tingle. "Would he?"

"No way! He's just a map maker!" Link exclaimed. "Are you sure you aren't mistaken, deku?"

The deku gave some consideration. "No, I'm pretty sure. I was there when it happened!"

"I just can't see it..." Link trailed off. He closed his eyes and thought deeply.

"Link look out!" Link opened his eyes, just in time to see something flying towards his face. Instinctively, he pulled out his sword and slashed at it, cutting whatever it was in half. Looking down as the object splashed into the murky water, he saw that it was a deku nut. A really big one.

"Oh no! It's those mean deku guys! They're bad news!" The little deku hoped behind Kafei and link.

"Mean deku? So they're enemies?" Kafei asked.

"I guess so." Link readied his sheild. "If I can deflect the nuts they spit out, it destroys them." He squinted, trying to see in the direction the nut came from.

The water around them began to move, and waves began to form. Soon, it was moving enough that Link started to loose his balance.

"Wh-what's going on?" Kafei steadied himself.

"We should run away!"

Kafei looked towards Link who had a 'I'll never run away' look on his face. Once he realized they weren't running, Kafei readied his own weapon. Only one thing could make the swamp shake that much. The monster they were dreading emerged from the swamp. It was like the little deku...only much, much larger.

"What..." Link stared up at the beast. "I didn't think they could get that big..."

"Well apparently they can! What are we going to do?"

The deku bent over the two and let out a massive roar. Kafei and Link were pelted by bits and pieces of nuts and seeds.

"Ow! I don't think my shield can fend off all of these!" Link put his shield over his face to stop the pieces from hitting him.

Kafei did the same with his blades. "Ugh..."

Finally, there was a window of opportunity, the monster inhaled, readying it's self to throw more nuts at it's opponents.

"Now!" Link yelled, and rushed, as fast as he could, toward the deku. He ran under it's legs, getting out of it's line of sight. "Navi! What's it's weakness?"

"Um...um.." Navi flew around, trying to figure it out. "I don't know!"

"You don't know!"

Tatl yelled to him. "I got this! It's the top of it's head just under all of it's leaves!"

"Thanks Tatl! Now, how do I get up there?" To Link's dismay, the deku spun its head around, and glared at him. "What!" Link held out his shield as the deku spit a nut at him. Luckily, he was able to deflect it...towards Kafei. Kafei reacted quickly by swing his arm at it, and deflecting it again with his blade. From being hit by two people, the nut had gained enough speed that when it hit a nearby tree, it bounced off and smacked the large deku in the face, knocking it over. Link saw what was happening as the deku plunged towards him, and ran as fast as he could away from it. He almost didn't make it.

Seizing his chance, Link ran back towards the deku and thrust his sword into the soft spot on the top of it's head. It quickly stood up, bringing Link with it. Link yelped and held onto his sword for dear life. Once the deku settled a bit, Link took his sword out and stabbed it again...and again, until it gave it's final roar. And exploded. Link was left dangling in mid air for a fraction of a second before he began to fall to the swamp.

Kafei gasped. 'Should I catch him?' He ran to the spot where Link was probably going to fall and held his arms out wearily. "I-I gotcha, Link!" Instead, Link landed on top of Kafei, making him splash face first into the water.

"Phew! Thanks for catching me, Kafei." Link said, wiping the sweat from his brow.

"Get off!" Kafei stood up quickly, throwing Link off. He wiped what water and muck he could from his clothing while Link picked himself out of the water as well.

"Oh Mr. Fairy!" They heard a familiar voice sing. "Over here, Mr. Fairy!"

They looked to see Tingle, standing on an island in the swamp, jumping up and down and waving, ever so happily.

* * *

><p>Yeah! Ch 6 finally up! I confess, I've been on break for weeks but haven't updated till now. Sorry! Anyway, hope you like!<p> 


	7. Another Tingle?

Kafei's New Maks

Chapter 7

Kafei looked frantically to Link, who thankfully still had his sword drawn. He game him sort of a 'What are we supposed to do!' look. Link simply stared at the bouncing green man with a blank expression.

"Why are you ignoring me, Mr. Fairy?"

Link's expression instantly changed. He forced a friendly smile and called to Tingle, "Oh. H-hey Tingle! What brings you to these parts?"

"Oh, I was just mapping out the unexplored part of the swamp when I heard a terrible noise! I flew down to see what was the matter, and I saw you here! Fancy us meeting again, yes?"

Link took a moment to reply, "Yeah."

Kafei grabbed Link's arm and pulled him close so he could whisper in his ear. "What are you doing? Shouldn't we be attacking him?"

Link shook himself free. "If we play along, he may lead us to the princess!"

"It's a trap!" The little deku suddenly said, jumping up and down.

"Where have you been?" Tatl barked at him.

"I was hiding!"

"Shh!" Link commanded. "Tingle! Did you find anything...suspicious in the swamp while you were mapping?"

"Now that you mention it, I did notice a scary looking building that emerged from the swamp. I had never seen it before so it surprised me!" When he said, 'surprised,' Tingle hopped and threw his hands into the air.

"That seems a little too obvious," Kafei stated, crossing his arms.

"Follow me, Mr. Fairy!" Tingle pulled a string and his balloon began to inflate. "I'll take you to it!"

'Wouldn't it have been better for him to give us a map?' Link thought. 'He's leading us to the building. This is suspicious.'

* * *

><p>"Where did that little green freak go?" Kafei asked angrily, picking his ruined boots out of the mud. They had been trudging through swamp for a couple of days and Kafei was really starting to get irritated, not like everybody else wasn't. "I can't see him anymore!"<p>

Link squinted his eyes up at the grey sky. "I can't either. Maybe he-"

Pop! "Uaaaaahhhh!" They both heard it.

"Oh no." Kafei jumped out of the way, just in time to _not _be crushed by a falling Tingle. Instead, he splashed in the water, face first. Slowly, his balloon covered him and small bubbles emerged from the water.

"He's drowning!" Link scooped him up and set him on a stump that was sticking out of the swamp. Tingle stumbled around, but eventually steadied himself. "Oh! Mr Fairy! What a coincidence for us to meet here!"

Link stepped back and shook his head. "What?" He said bluntly.

"I was flying over the swamp to get to town when something came out of the clouds and popped my balloon! Thank goodness you saved me!"

"But..." Kafei stammered, "Going to town? But you were showing us this building in the swamp..."

"It's a trap!" The Deku said again.

Tingle cocked his head and stared at him. "You must be mistaken! I haven't been in the swamp for five minutes!"

All was silent. Silent enough that you could hear the tiny flutter of the fairies' wings.

"That's it," Kafei finally said. He slid the blades off his arms and took a step towards Tingle. Suddenly, someone called from _behind _them.

"Yoohoo! Mr. F-" Link and Kafei turned swiftly to face a Tingle on a high branch, stopped in mid sentence seeing the Tingle standing on the tree trunk. He opened his eyes wide in surprised, took a few careful steps back, and took off into the sky.

"Impostor!" The Tingle that remained yelled and pointed at the spot where the other Tingle once stood.

"No kidding! C'mon!" Link grabbed the arm of a dumbfounded Kafei and pulled him along. Tingle decided to come too. He was able to keep up by inflating his balloon and flying along beside them.

"Navi! Keep an eye on him!" Of course, Link was talking about the 'fake' Tingle. They could barely see him, but his bright red balloon was visible through the opening in the trees.

"Got it!" Navi flew up, hoping to get a better look of him. Moments later, she flew back down in a hurry. "Link! He went in!"

The running (and flying) group stopped, catching their breath. "What do you mean?"

Navi flew closer to Link's head and face forward so he could see where she was seeing. Up ahead, looming in the dead middle of an unexplored section of the swamp, was an ominous temple.

"Woah," Link said as the group approached it.

"Link!" Tatl chimed, "Was this here before?"

"I don't think so."

"He went right through there!" She motioned toward the biggest opening in the temple.

The group hurried inside. "At least he opened it for us." Link said as he took a look around the temple. Suddenly, the door slammed behind them. "Hmph."

I guess the only way to go is...forward." Kafei gestured toward the dark halls of the temple before them.

* * *

><p>"Can you find a torch somewhere? I don't think Navi and Tatl's light will be enough." Kafei said as he freed his hand from a spider web that had attached its self to him.<p>

"Um...yeah! Here's one!" Link picked up an unlit torch off the floor. "It's not lit though...and we don't have-" The torch suddenly lit, surprising Link so much that he almost dropped it. "Never mind."

A gust of wind came from the way they were traveling, with it there was a dark and deep laugh. The group hesitated.

"I think he's down there." Kafei swallowed loud enough for them to hear.

"I don't think we should go..." The little Deku began to turn around bumped into Tatl who scowled at him.

"What are we waiting for!" Tingle deflated his balloon and _skipped _the rest of the way.

"He's killing the mood," Tatl commented as the group pressed on behind him.

One would think that they _wouldn't _go near the dark voice, but when the voice got louder, they went faster.

"We're getting close. I can feel a dark presence." Navi said.

"More the reason not to go in..." The Deku said, still pressing against approaching the darkness.

This time, Navi flew into his face, "Will you cut that out!"

Link considered Navi's words. "Navi, why didn't you feel that earlier when we were with the...other Tingle?"

"Whoever he is, he's good at masking his appearance, and his aura."

They came to a large metal door, which was thankfully unlocked. Link gave Kafei a 'here we go' look and pushed it open. Link, Kafei, and Tingle were the first ones in. Once they had taken only a few steps, the same evil wind as before came, and knocked Navi and Tatl out of the room, along with the little Deku. The door slammed shut, again, trapping Kafei, Link, and Tingle without their friends.

"Oh no! Oh no!" The Deku was freaking out.

Navi kept calm. "Link! You'll have to go on with out us! Please be careful!"

"We will...or at least try." Link pulled his hands away from his feeble attempt to open the door again. He glanced down at Tingle, who was knocking at the stone door, checking it out.

"C'mon Tingle, Kafei, let's go."

"Shh!" Kafei suddenly quieted them. "Do you hear that?" He was hearing a faint voice. A moment passed before he could make out what it was saying.

"...fei...Kafei..." It was calling for _him. _

"That voice!" Kafei said frantically, "It's...Anju's!"

* * *

><p>Yay chapter seven! I promise they will get out of the swamp soon! XD Please leave a review!<p> 


	8. Katal

Kafie's New Mask

Chapter 8

"Anju!" Kafei ran toward her voice, leaving the others behind.

"Ah! Kafei wait!" link unsheathed his sword and ran after him, Tingle padding along behind them.

Kafei suddenly stopped and leaned against a wall. "Where is it coming from?" It seemed like Anju's voice was coming from every direction.

Link spun around a few times. "I can't tell!"

"Listen to that!" Tingle put a hand up to his ear and leaned forward. There were voices coming from below their feet.

"She's under us!" Kafei exclaimed.

"There must be a basement to this temple!"

"But...where's the entrance?"

In fact, there seemed to be no stairs, holes, or even cracks in the floor. Nor were there any more doors for them to walk through.

"Well...let's go back. Maybe we missed something when we were running," Link suggested. The crew headed back the exact same way they had come. The temple looked exactly as it had before, for the most lart. They began to walk slower, as it was taking them a lot longer to get there. Link was starting to think they were getting lost. "Kafie...don't you think there was a...you know, a door here before? Where we left Tatl, Navi, and the deku?" Link knocked on the bare wall. "Hello?" There was no response.

Kafei looked at the door angrily and looked around for another escape. "This place...is like an ever-changing maze."

"We're traaaaaaaaped!" Tingle fell to his little knees and grasped at his green hat.

"C-calm down!" Link exclaimed, "We'll be ok!" He gasped, suddenly getting an idea. "I know! These walls are probably fake! We might be able to blast through them!"

Kafei scoffed at him. "That is the most ridiculous-" He stopped and stared at Link, who had retrieved several bombs from his pack. "Do _not _light those."

"Why?" Link stopped in mid-action of lighting a match to a bomb.

"We will _die._"

Link gasped, and dropped the bomb in his hand. Thankfully, he hadn't lighted it.

"Good. Now put those away and we'll find a less dangerous way of getting around." Kafei crossed his arms in a matter-of-factly way.

Tingle gasped too, and pointed a shaky finger behind Kafei. Kafei's eyes widened and he swiftly turned around, expecting there to be an enemy behind him. To his surprise, there wasn't. Only a dark, _moving_ hallway. The three stared in awe as the corridors shifted silently, creating a new path from where they were. They arranged themselves into a single, long and mysterious hallway. The torches adorning the walls suddenly lit, showing the travelers a large wooden door at the end.

"I guess..." Kafei started.

Link finished his sentence. "That's where we need to go."

* * *

><p>Looking back at Kafei and Tingle, Link placed his hand on the door handle. "Ready?"<p>

"As we'll ever be." They both looked down at Tingle, who shook his head vigorously. Kafei nodded his head, and Link slowly pushed the door open.

At first, it was quite dark, but of course, the lanterns lit themselves. The room was big, but not as big as they expected it to be. There were chairs and tables lining the floor, and various pots and pans laying about. In the corner, there was a fireplace. Over it, was a kettle of something cooking, presumably soup. The walls had many decorations, that varied from fake swords and shields, to different kinds of animal skins. It looked strangely like...a dining room. Kafei and Link gave each other a very surprised look.

"Come to join me for dinner?" Link was about to glance down at Tingle, before he realized the voice had come from across the room. "How very...nice of you." Out from the darkest corner of the room, emerged Tingle, or the impostor Tingle.

Link still had his sword drawn, so he simply pointed at the vicious green man. "You! Who are you?"

"Hm hm hm...shouldn't the question be 'where is she?' I figure that's what you're worried about the most." The impostor Tingle jumped up onto a table and snapped his fingers. There was scraping sound, like rock against rock, and quite a few of the tiles in the wall to their right shifted. A very terrified Anju appeared, chained to the wall.

"Anju!" Kafei reached out like he was going to grab her from across the room. He took a step forward, but a table slid across the floor, knocking him over.

"Not so fast, we don't want to ruin the fun too early!" The impostor Tingle exclaimed, clapping his hands.

Link began to shake with anger. "I've had enough of this!" He bolted toward him, cleverly evading a chair that came flying his way. It was rather hard, but he was able to jump on top of one of the moving tables, and hop across them like they were rocks in a stream. Realizing he was in trouble, the impostor Tingle jumped into the air, just in time to evade Link's powerful swing of the sword. Link landed on the floor with bent knees, and gave a menacing glare to the floor before him.

The impostor Tingle turned swiftly to counter attack Link, but was faced with the _real _Tingle, smacking him in the face with a sauce pan. The force sent him flying to the wall. "That's what you get for looking like me!"

By this time, Kafei had regained his stance, and sped to attack the impostor Tingle before he stood up. He grabbed the blades off his arms and moved to stab the man in the throat. He hit something hard, like metal, that made a shock run through both of his arms, making him drop the blades. Still trying to recover, he suffered a severe blow to the stomach, and was flung across the room, into one of the tables.

Where the impostor Tingle once was, there was a thick mass of black smoke. The smoke swirled around and around, forming itself. Only it didn't form completely. Once it had turned into a rather circular blob of smoke, it rushed at Kafei, who was rubbing his head from the impact.

"Kafei!" Anju screamed from the wall she was still chained to.

The mass would have hit Kafei if Link hadn't have jumped in front of him with his shield. Miraculously, it worked, and the mass was deflected. It flew a few feet, and smashed onto the floor. Pieces of it flew everywhere, like it had exploded. Every one of them flew around the room a few times, bouncing off of everything, before rushing toward each other. They made a large booming sound as they collided, and created another figure, a man. He was tall and slim, but not very muscular looking. He had longish red-brown hair that touched the tops of his pale green eyes. He wore a simple black, long sleeved shirt tucked into his grey trousers. Everything about him looked normal, even his standard brown boots. Excess mass flew off to create a long, black sword in the man's hand.

"You're Katal, aren't you," Link said, not expecting an answer.

Kafei stood up beside Link. "I...I know you.."

Katal cocked his head upwards in a knowing manner as he smirked at the two. "Yes. I can see you are surprised."

"You work as a guard in castle town! I see you almost everyday!"

"Yes yes." He waved a dismissive hand at Kafei. "But that's not important. What is important is that mask you're wearing." He extended his arm and held his hand out in a demanding manner. "I need that mask. Give it to me now."

"We wont give in so easily!" Link yelled at him.

Katal sighed and put a hand up to his face. "I knew it. Look, I'll strike a deal with you. In return for that mask, I will give you _her._" He pointed toward Anju who was surprisingly...gone. "What!" Katal actually looked surprised. He turned just in time to see Tingle and Anju tiptoeing to the exit. It almost seemed like Katal's eyes caught on fire.

With Katal's head turned, Link and Kafei decided to seize their opportunity. Link ran at him, and locked swords with him as he realized he was being attacked. Kafei darted to the side of him to retrieve the blades which he had dropped. Before helping Link, Kafei turned to Anju and Tingle. "Get out of here! Now!"

Katal swung his sword at Link, knocking him back. Just as Kafei came after him, and Link rushed toward him again, he jumped into the air, causing Link and Kafei to lock weapons with each other. They both gasped, and pulled away before either of them got hurt. Katal did a backflip in mid-air and landed right behind Anju. He kicked Tingle hard in the stomach and sent him soaring. He quickly threw his arm around Anju to reduce her movement, and put his sword up to her throat. That stopped Link and Kafei in their tracks.

"No!" Kafei held his blades to his chest, his heart beginning to race.

"Give it to me. Or she will die!" Katal was very angry. He grimaced, showing that he had sharp canine like teeth.

The world seemed to pause, as Kafei ran through his only options. Give Katal the mask, even though he didn't know how he would it being stuck to his face and all, and doom the entire planet, or fight him, and lose the only love of his life. "I..."

"I'll give you three seconds." Katal tightened the grip he had on Anju, causing her to squeal.

Kafei closed his eyes and looked away from Anju. If his brain decided to let her die, he didn't want to see it.

"One."

But he wanted to change his mind, so he looked back at her terrified face.

"Two."

Kafei opened his mouth to speak, but nothing would come out.

"Three!"

Before Katal could make any action to kill Anju, the pack on Link's hip began to glow brightly. None of them had any time to register before it shot out of Link's pack and surrounded Kafei. After a quick two seconds of flashing and swirling, the light formed into little snake like streams that formed themselves around Kafei's mask. Kafei staggered back like he was being pushed as the light coincided in the upper right portion of the mask, right over Kafei's eye. The light suddenly faded, and they were all silent.

"What..." Kafei managed to get out before the mask lit up again suddenly. It flashed, then traveled down Kafei's body into his gauntlets. The blades in his hands disappeared, and in their place emerged a shiny, golden sword. Kafei stared at it, astounded.

Katal gasped, and stepped back, taking Anju with him. Kafei looked up at Katal, and saw that he was afraid of the sword. He felt a sudden surge of confidence and hope, and stepped toward him. Katal panicked for a moment.

"Let her go," Kafei demanded.

Katal looked terrified, but then he suddenly smirked. "Sure thing." He pushed her forward, but as he did, he sliced her stomach open.

* * *

><p>Oh my. How unfortunate. Will Anju live? Well you'll just have to keep reading to find out! -smirk- Please r&amp;r!<p> 


	9. I Still Love You

Kafei's New Mask

Chapter 9

They watched in horror as Katal slid his sword across Anju's stomach. He smirked and chuckled mildly at them, then snapped his fingers and disappeared. Anju fell helplessly to the ground. Or she would have, if Kafei hadn't of snapped to his senses and caught her before she hit the stone floor. His glowing sword burst into light and flew back into Kafei's gauntlets.

"Anju..no.." Kafei brushed hair from her face so he could look into her eyes. If she was going to die, he wanted her to see him, and to know that he was with her. She looked up at him, and smiled weakly.

"I'm so glad to see you again..." she trailed off and coughed once.

"Anju...You- you're not going to die! Ok?" Kafei looked around frantically to see if there was anything he could do. Seeing nothing, he looked back at her, tears forming in his eyes. "Please don't die..."

Suddenly, the temple began to shake. Link was about to run over to Anju and Kafei, but the shaking made him lose his balance. He plopped onto his bottom, and called over to them. "Kafei! The temple is shaking!" He bluntly stated the obvious. "We have to get out of here!"

"Oh m-my! W-what i-ss going o-o-o-n-n-n!" Tingle tried to spit out but his pudgy little body was being thrown around by the shaking.

But there was no way Kafei could move Anju without hurting her even more. He tried to pick her up, but she yelled out in pain. "Kafei...it's no use. Please go..without me."

The shaking begun to die down, to their astonishment. "What!" Link hopped up. "What was that? I thought the temple was going to fall!"

Kafei finally had a moment to examine Anju's wound. 'She's loosing a lot of blood...' he thought. Then he yelled, "Link! Find me something I can use as a bandage!"

Link nodded. He ran around, throwing pans and moving the already turned tables and chairs. "There-there's nothing!"

"Here! Use this!" Tingle suddenly exclaimed. He held out a strip of red...something.

Link ran over and snatched it. He stared at it questionably and stretched it. It was rather flimsy. "What is this?"

"It's part of a broken balloon! I have tons of them!"

"Link!" Kafei called to him. "Stop messing around!"

"Right!" Link rushed over to Kafei and handed him the strip.

"This will be better than nothing..." Kafei placed his hand over Anju's wound. "I'm sorry Anju. This is going to hurt." He pressed down, trying to ignore her cries of pain. Even so, it made his eyes burn with sympathy. He quickly lifted her body and wrapped her stomach a few times with the strip of Tingle's balloon. He tied it, hoping it would at least stop the bleeding. Thankfully, her breathing stayed steady, and she was still conscious.

Link sighed in relief, realizing that there was a good chance she was going to be ok. It seemed that Katal hadn't mortally wounded her. "C'mon! Let's get going! Before that Katal guy decides to come back!"

Kafei placed his arms under Anju's knees and back, and carefully picked her up. She adjusted her head to get a better look of him. "When did you get that mask..." She tried to touch his face, but her arm fell limp.

"It's a long story." He quickly walked after Link, who was opening the large, heavy door. A ball of light smacked him in the face as soon as he did so.

"Link!" Navi bounced off of him, then flew around his head rapidly.

"Navi!" Link grabbed her out of the air and squished her against his face happily.

Tatl and the deku had rejoined them as well. "Come on!" The deku jumped up and down. "We know where the princess is!" He motioned for them to follow him.

"Wait!" Kafei yelled. The group halted. "I-i have to get Anju to a hospital! Or at least to someone who can help her!"

Link put a hand to his chin, thinking quickly. "Do any of you happen to know where the exit is as well?"

"Yeah!" Tatl chimed. "We passed it on the way here! Oh if you don't hurry, the temple might rearrange itself again!"

"But the princess!" The deku tugged at Link's tunic frantically. "What are we going to do?"

Link looked to Kafei, then back to the deku. He cleared his throat. "Split up. Someone take Anju to get help. The rest of us will find the princess. And the seal." He sounded very serious.

"I'll go with Anju." Kafei announced.

"No!" Link put his hand out to stop Kafei, even though he hadn't moved. "Kafei...I have a feeling that your sword may be the only thing that can stop Katal." He gave Kafei a serious look.

Kafei looked down at Anju, who's face was beginning to get very white. They didn't have much time. "But..."

"I'll take her!" Tingle exclaimed, and inflated his ballon. He floated over to Kafei and held out his hands like he was going to take Anju.

"I'll help you!" The deku activated the helicopter like leaves on top of his head, and flew next to Tingle. "We'll take real good care of her!"

Kafei stepped back, holding Anju closer to his chest. But then, he sighed. He knew that this could be the only chance they had to save her. He held her out, so that Tingle could take hold of her shoulders, and the deku could hold her legs. He put his arms to his chest, clinging like she was still there. The hovered back a few feet, the. began down a hallway. Kafei frowned, watching as his wife was being taken away. He suddenly ran to them and held her face in his hands. The two fliers stopped as Kafei pressed his face against Anju's and kissed her, possibly the last time he ever would. "Be careful," he said, looking at Anju, but speaking to Tingle and the Deku.

"We will!" They said simultaneously. Again, they journeyed toward the exit.

Tatl sighed. "I'd better go with them." She sped after them.

Kafei, Link, and Navi were left by themselves. "Kafei.." Link spoke up, "She'll be ok."

"I know," Kafei said, suddenly confident. "Let's go get the princess."

* * *

><p>"Here it is!" Navi flew up and down in front of a large door. Surprisingly, it looked the same as the one before.<p>

"Uh.." Link looked over at Kafei. Instead of answering, Kafei thrust his arms out and pushed the door open.

A wave of intense heat came over them, making them all shield their faces. Then came cheering.

"Oh you've come to save us!" As soon as the three regained their bearings, they looked up to see the Deku King and Princess, tied together and dangling over a pit of lava.

"Dear goddess, this man never ceases to amuse me." Link said, talking about the unoriginal trap Katal had set up.

The King and the Princess spun slowly over the pit. "Oh thank goodness! It is rather hot in here..." The King said, giving the travelers a relieved look.

"Of course it is. It's a pit of lava!" A voice came from the shadows, but stepped out to reveal itself belonging to Katal, who had changed his outfit. He was now wearing a pair of black leather trousers, and bright blue tunic embroidered with golden thread, and a black cape that covered only the left side of his body.

Kafei nearly growled as he attempted to rush at Katal. Link stopped him before he fought with blind fury.

"Oh dear...how is your little girlfriend? Did she die? How sad..." Katal put a hand to his face and pouted, pretending to look upset.

"Shut up!" Kafei screamed at him.

Katal jumped backwards, as if Kafei's words were flying daggers. He bounced off a nearby rock and jumped up to the rope the King and Princess were dangling from. Placing a foot on the King's head, and grabbing onto the rope, Katal thrusted forward, making the rope swing back and forth. The King and Princess screamed in terror. "I know that she hid the seal. And you seem to have another one. So why don't we avoid any other casualties and give them both here, hm?" He held out his hand expectingly.

At the word _casualties, _Kafei snapped. He yelled out in anger and readied his weapons. First, he pushed the boomerang blades out of his gauntlets, and sent them flying at Katal. But he was careful not to hit the rope. Katal made a face and jumped backwards. He seemed to disappear into thin air. Kafei huffed and retrieved his blades. Quickly, he re-attatched them and they fizzled out into golden light that ran through his gauntlets. They rearranged into the sword.

"Ha!" Katal re-appeared behind Kafei. "Got-"

Before he finished his sentence, Kafei spun around and smacked him in the chest with the side of his sword, not having enough room to actually turn it around to cut him. The force sent Katal flying few feet. He fell onto his back, not expecting the attack. Wasting no time, Kafei jumped on top of Katal and put the sword to his throat.

"How do _you _like it?" Kafei glared at him.

Meanwhile, Link had been watching in awe. "W-woah..." He shook his head and ran to help the King and Princess. Navi flew above his head as he jumped up and grabbed hold of them. Reluctantly, he glanced down at the pool of lava and swallowed hard. Nonetheless, he began to treat the rope as a swing, swinging his legs back and forth, making the rope move.

"What are you doing!" The King yelled frantically.

"Shh!" Link hushed him and continued swinging the rope. It went higher and higher until it was beginning to swing over the solid ground. Link brought out his sword and cut the rope loose. The two royalty screamed in pure terror until they flopped onto the ground, not in the lava. Link jumped up and cut them loose.

Katal moved his head to look at them. He hissed and disappeared again, making Kafei fall to the ground, almost on his sword. Kafei gasped, not being able to get up in time before Katal appeared before Link. But Link thought quickly and put his shield up to block Katal's attack. Katal sprang off Link's shield, knocking him back.

"Link, the Princess!" Kafei ran to them, determined to protect the Princess before Katal could strike again. Kafei jumped over the Princess and held his sword out horizontally to block Katal's sword, which had magically appeared. Black and gold sparks flew as the two swords met.

"I don't know who you are." Katal glared menacingly at Kafei, who was glaring back at him. "But that mask belongs to me! My victory is sealed inside that mask! Give it to me, so that I can break it!" Katal broke off and moved to attack Kafei again. Something smacked him in the face. "Guh!" He fell backwards again. Kafei looked back to see that the princess had spit a deku seed in his face.

"Take that you wretched...wretch!" She spit at him again.

"Ow! Stop it! Knock it off!" Katal yelled as the King joined in the spitting of the seeds. Kafei seized his chance, and thrust his sword at Katal. This time, it did hit him. The sword sliced right through Katal's stomach and through his back. When Kafei pulled his sword out, Katal fell to his knees. He clutched at his stomach and panted. Link stood next to Kafei, ready to help him if necessary. But his help was not needed.

"This..is not over! I_ will_ have that mask!" He yelled out in fury and dissapeared in a puff of black smoke. The smoke rushed at Kafei, but exploded harmlessly as it hit him.

"He's...gone," Link said, sheathing his sword. Kafei let his sword slink back into his gauntlets and nodded.

"Oooooh thank you! Thank you so much!" The King and Princess fell to their knees and bowed over and over. "You saved our lives."

Link placed a hand on the back of his head. "No problem heh heh."

"As a tolken of our gratitude, please take this!" The princess reached into a pocket of her dress and pulled out none other than the piece of the seal they had been searching for.

"Oh!" Kafei and Link gasped at the same time. Link stepped forward and took it from her hands. "You..had it all along?"

Link handed it to Kafei, who was standing with his arms crossed. "What? What do you want me to do with it."

"Well, I don't know. Maybe apply it to your mask?"

"How am I supposed to do that?" Kafei snatched the seal from Link's hands and held it before his face. He put it on the mask and slid it around, trying to find a place for it. "It won't go!"

Link took it and pushed it onto Kafei's face. "You just need to apply force!"

"Ow ow, Link stop!" Kafei smacked his hand. "It's not going on the mask yet ok? I think it...chooses when it wants to go on or something. This thing is alive, I swear!" Kafei placed a hand on his forehead, or the forehead of the mask actually. He applied a little pressure, and it slid off his face.

Link gasped. "Kafei! The mask came off!" He pointed frantically at Kafei's face.

Kafei blinked in surprise. The mask has slid onto his forehead. He brought both of his hands up to it and tried to lift it off. It didn't budge. He then tried to slide it back down, and then back up. "No...it's still attached. Just...less attached."

"It's the seal," Link breathed.

Kafei suddenly gasped. "Anju! We have to find them, to see if she's ok!"

* * *

><p>Finally, they found the exit to the temple. The temple hadn't moved since they begun their second fight with Katal. As soon as they exited, Navi flew upwards.<p>

"I'll fly ahead to see if I can find them!" She flew a few feet, then ran into Tatl who was flying full speed at her.

"Oof!" They both bounced back and fell out of the sky. Link caught Navi, and Kafei caught Tatl.

"Tatl! Are you alright?" Kafei poked her. She shook herself, then flew up into the air in front of Kafei's face.

"Yeah, I came to find you- hey I can see your face!"

"Shhhh! That's not important! Is Anju ok? Where is she?" Kafei laced his fingers and put his hands up to his face.

Tatl flew toward the middle of the swamp. "Yep! She's this way! C'mon!"

* * *

><p>Tatl led them to Kotake and Koume's potion shop. She flew up tot he top and waited for them.<p>

"They took her here?" Kafei led the climb up to the tower. Once at the top, he knocked on the door, holding his breath.

"Come in!" They heard one of the witches call.

Kafei swung the door open, and nearly jumped inside. The first thing he saw was Anju, sitting on a makeshift bed, with the witches by her side. Kafei could barely speak.

"Kafei!" Anju called to him, tears of joy in her eyes.

Kafei walked slowly to her bed and knelt down in front of it. "Anju...you're alive. You're alive!" He couldn't help it anymore, he let the tears stream down his face. Anju put her arms out and Kafei pulled her into an embrace. "I'm so glad..." He sobbed into her shoulder.

Anju pulled away slightly and rubbed his cheek. "I'm alright." She smiled and looked over his face. Her hand slid up to the mask. "This mask is coming off."

"Yeah it is." Kafei placed his hand on top of hers which was on top of the mask. "But not completley."

"Hm." Anju smiled wider. "That's alright. I still love you." She closed her eyes and kissed him.

* * *

><p>D'awww...how sweet! Yep she lived! You didn't honestly think I would let Anju die, did you? XD Well the story isn't over, but they finally get out of the swamp! HOORAY! I was starting to feel like I was in the swamp haha. Blech. This chapter is a lot longer than the others. o_o; Well anyway, please excuse my grammar if there are any mistakes, I was awfully tired when I wrote about the last half of this. PLEASE FORGIVE! ;0;<p>

Anyway, please r&r! And remember that the story isn't over yet! 8D

Kafei: How the heck could it! We still need to finish the seal! I WANT THIS DAMN THING OFF MY FACE!

Me: BUT...BUT...I'm tired! You'll have to wait until the next chapter. ^^~


	10. It's all fun and games

Kafei's New Mask

Chapter 10

"Are you sure there isn't anything we can do to repay you?" Link stood at the doorway of Kotake and Koume's front door to their hut. "You've done so much for us."

Kotake waved her hand dismissively at him. "Getting rid of Katal was payment enough!"

"But we didn't defeat him. He just...left."

"Out of the swamp! I don't think he will have any business here in the future, so _we _don't have anything to worry about," Koume said gratefully.

Link sighed and smiled at them. "Well...alright then!" He backed up and begun to climb down the ladder to where his friends were waiting. "Thank you again!" He waved up at them as they closed the door.

Kafei yawned and slipped the mask off his face so that he could rub his eyes. "It was really nice of them to let us borrow this boat." He patted the edge of the small wooden boat he, Link, Anju and the fairies were sitting in. "I wish we would have thought of that before."

Link flinched, remembering how they had sloshed through the icky swamp a couple days before. "Well..you know.."

"How are we going to return this?" Anju asked, nonchalantly running her fingers across a lily pad that floated by them.

Link took hold of one of the oars and handed the other to Kafei. "They said to just leave it in the water, and it will find its own way home."

"Well..." Anju brought her hand out of the water and rested it in her lap. "They are witches."

Before the took off, Link looked behind them to see Tingle and the three Deku watching them happily. "Thank you for all of your help!" The princess called after them. "We'll never forget you!"

"It's no problem!" Kafei exclaimed.

"Mr. Tingle, are you sure you don't want to ride back to town with us?" Anju asked.

Tingle bounced once. "I've got my ballon! Much faster traveling!" He pulled his string and the ballon inflated. "See you again sometime, Mr. Fairy!" He floated up into the sky, higher and higher until they could no longer see him.

Link nodded, and pushed off the shore with his oar. "Wait!" The little deku skipped across the water to meet up with them. Link took his oar out of the water to slow them down. "If you ever find yourselves around here again, don't hesitate to come by!"

"Of course." Link smiled. The little deku hopped back over to the Princess and King and waved goodbye with them.

"Hm." Kafei said, as they made their way down the swamp. "I think I might miss the little guy a bit."

"Tingle?" Link said innocently.

"No way!" He lifted his oar out of the water and flicked it at Link, splashing him.

Anju covered her mouth and giggled quietly, before they all started to laugh.

* * *

><p>Navi flew ahead of the others, and rested on a nearby stone. "Finally! Fresh, field air!" She flopped over, letting the sun hit her.<p>

They had made it out of the swamp, and into Termina field where Clock Town was visible only a little bit away. "Ahhh..." Kafei stretched his arms out. "Thank goodness."

"Soo...where to next?" Tatl landed on top of Kafei's head.

"First," Link said, "Let's go back to town. We'll collect some supplies."

"And some clean clothing. You both smell horrible. And I have blood all over my shirt." Anju stated, brushing at the dried blood from her almost fatal wound.

"Yeah that might be our first order of business!" Navi sped back over to the group.

They walked steadily back to Clock Town, but as they did, Link took in what was around him. Not much had changed since his last visit. The entrance to the mountains and the ocean were still there, the same as they had been. Romani ranch seemed to be doing just fine, didn't look like they had been destroyed by aliens. As the group passed a certain tree, Link looked down to see the picture that Skullkid had doodled of himself and Link with their fairies, Tatl and Tael.

"Tatl...I just remembered something. "Where's your brother? And Skullkid? Are they well?"

Tatl halted in mid-air. "Yeah. Tael and Skullkid are fine. They're at home." After that, Tatl didn't say anything else. Link thought it best to leave it at that. She didn't seem to feel like talking about them.

"Look!" Anju exclaimed. "We're home!" There they stood, at the base of Clock Town.

* * *

><p>People were all about, running around doing their errands, shopping. Even the little kids were happily playing in the town. They all seemed happy, like they had no idea what was actually going on in the world. The group made their way around all of the people, luckily evading eyes. Nobody noticed that Kafei and Link were covered in mud, or Anju in blood. They were able to get to Anju and Kafei's house without drawing attention.<p>

"Oh my...we must get this door fixed." Anju said, prodding at their broken front door. "And look at the wall! How atrocious!" She placed her hands on her hips and glared at the bloody message that still stained the wall.

"Yeah...come to think of it...where did all of this blood come from? It didn't seem to come from you, Anju." Link said, scratching his chin.

"No. I wasn't bleeding when he...first captured me. Oh what are we going to do? Our house doesn't seem livable at the moment." Anju grasped Kafei's hand and frowned.

Kafei thought for a moment. "Maybe you should go stay with your grandmother."

"Your grandmother is still alive?" Is what Link wanted to say. But instead he said, "Yeah that's a great idea!"

"But what about you?" Anju said worriedly. "What are you going to do?"

Kafei sighed, and looked over at Link who had just jumped into the middle of a bickering fest of the two fairies. "I have to help them save Termina."

"I know..." Anju said sadly. "But will you be careful? Please? I don't want to lose you."

Kafei smiled. "Of course I will."

"Come on Navi! I'm sure she didn't mean it!" Link held both of the wriggling fairies as they tried to maul each other.

Anju giggled. "I'm sure you'll have lots of fun," she said sarcastically.

* * *

><p>Anju gathered some things and left to her grandmothers. Before she went, however, she asked Kafei and Link to come see her one last time before they left town. Navi and Tatl stayed with Anju to rest up. The two men went to walk around town to see if there was anything they could use on their journey.<p>

"I'll take a few of those arrows aaaannnd a couple of these red potions." Link said to the shop owner, who nodded and went to gather Link's items.

Kafei stood in the shop behind Link, looking around. "You know, I don't think I've ever been in this shop."

"Well you've never been out adventuring before." Link stuffed the filled potion bottles and arrows into his pack. "Have you?"

"Nah. I haven't been much of anywhere besides Clock Town and the surrounding area. I went to the beach once." He frowned.

"I take it you didn't like it?"

"A crab pinched me."

Link laughed. "You know we'll probably have to go there soon."

The two left the store and headed down the street. "Actually," Kafei started, "Where should we go next?"

"Hm. I don't know. Maybe we should check that paper." He reached his hand around to the pack on his back and fished around. "Um." He stopped walking and checked another pack. "Not in that one..." Suddenly he grimmaced and looked slowly over to Kafei.

"Link. Do not tell me you lost it." Kafei covered his face.

"I...I didn't loose it! I may have just...misplaced it? But I know I just had it! Maybe I dropped it!" Link turned around to look at the ground to see if he had indeed dropped it. He spotted a little kid, who was grinning at him.

"Hi mister! Are you looking for this?" The kid held out a crunched up piece of paper.

"The map! Hey! How did you get that!" Link grabbed for it, but the kid jumped back to evade him.

"Catch me if you can!" He sang and ran off.

"What! Come back here!" Link reached for his sword, but Kafei stopped him.

"Link! He's only a kid!"

Link stopped, and slid his sword back into its holder. "R-right."

The two bolted after him. The kid was actually pretty quick. He dared around corners and over tables. Places where grown ups like Kafei and Link had a hard time getting around. Finally, the kid stopped in front of a door and turned around. He stuck his fingers in his ears and blew raspberries at them. Then he opened the door and ran inside.

"Jeese that kid is fast!" Kafei bent over to catch his breath. "Why is he doing this?"

"I don't know!" Link grabbed Kafei's arm and dragged him towards the door. When he swung it open, the room was empty. "What? Where did he go?"

"Psst!" The kid waved at them from the opposite side of the room. Then he disappeared into a hole in the wall.

Kafei and Link both sighed. "We're going to have to follow him," Link said, and led the way.

They knelt down onto the floor in front of the hole. Peering in, they could see that it was a tunnel. "I don't know if I can fit through there..." Kafei whispered, pushing the mask down onto his face.

"We have to try!" Link plopped down onto his belly and began to wriggle his way through the tunnel. Kafei took one last look around the room before sighing loudly and going after Link.

* * *

><p>After a long while of harsh crawling and scooting, the two were able to make it to the end of the tunnel. "I think I see light!" Link exclaimed and accidentally kicked Kafei in the face.<p>

"Ow!" Kafei yelled rather quietly.

"Sorry..." Link apologized and crawled out into the open, helping Kafei out as well. The both stood up and brushed them selves off. "Where did that little brat go?"

Suddenly the room lit up, totally surprising them. The kid that stole their map stood confidently behind a couple of other kids. They all had their arms crossed and they were looking down at Link and Kafei from a platform. "Welcome to our hideout! If you want your paper back, you're going to have to do something for us!"

"Come on kid, we're kind of in a hurry-" Link tried to reason with him.

"We won't let you go that easily!"

"Fine...what do you want." Link stated bluntly, getting irritated.

The kid uncrossed his arms and held up the paper. "In order to receive this, you must... play our game!"

"Seriously? Can't we just knock him out and take the paper?" Link pleaded to Kafei.

Kafei scoffed at him. "Of course not! Just play along...maybe this wont take long. What do we have to do, Kid?"

"My name is Taler! The boss of the Bombers!"

"...ok. Sorry...Taler." Kafei said under his breath.

"And this is what you have to do!" He pointed towards an abandoned cart sitting on a rusty track.

"What the-!" Link flailed. "Where are we?"

Taler continued, "Get in that cart and use this slingshot to hit all the targets along the way." He chucked a slingshot at Link which hit him in the head. "You'll be traveling down a track."

"Why!" Link rubbed at his head.

"Because! We want to open this new game to make some money! And we need some test subjects."

Link and Kafei looked at eachother for a long moment. Finally, they hung their heads and gave an exasperated sigh. They made their way towards the cart and started to get in it.

"Wait!" Taler called. "You have to wear these!" He threw two objects at them.

Upon picking them up, Kafei saw that they were headbands with bunny ears attatched to them. "Hold on! What do these have ANYTHING to do with this stupid little game!"

"Because it's fun! Now put them on or I will just have to tear this little paper up..." He made a pretend tearing motion with his hands.

"No!" Kafei and Link yelled at the same time. Defeated, they placed the bunny hoods onto their heads.

* * *

><p>"Ready?" Taler called to them over by a switch.<p>

"As ready as we'll ever be..." Link muttered, twirling the slingshot around in his hand.

"Ok! One...two...three!" As soon as Taler said three, he flipped the switch, and their cart shot off with amazing speed.

"Holy Zora eggs!" Link screamed as he clung onto the edge of the cart for dear life.

Kafei did the same. "How did these little kids build this damn thing!" The cart zipped right down the track, turning corners and teetering with every direction change.

"We're missing the targets!" Link yelled as he spotted wooden cut outs of horribly drawn monsters hanging on the walls.

"Forget the targets! I don't want to die!" Kafei slipped off the side of the cart and slid to the bottom.

"They'll probably make us do it again if we don't hit them!" Link tried to steady himself and fix the slingshot on a target. But...as he did, something smacked him in the side of the head, exploding and getting water everywhere. He fell over onto Kafei who was already lying on the floor of the cart. "The targets are shooting things at us! What is this, a water balloon!"

"Oh my god, we're not going to make it!" Kafei cried, clutching onto Link, the only thing that was around.

Link pried Kafei off of him. "Yes we will! Here!" He took off his shield and handed it to Kafei. "You shield me from the projectiles while I shoot the targets!"

Kafei slowly peered over the edge of the cart towards the way they were traveling. Instantly, a ballon came flying towards his face. "Gah!" He held up the shield just in time, but the water still showered over him.

"Keep it up!" Link pulled back a seed in the slingshot and closed one eye to get a better look at the targets. He let go, and the seed flew right into the forehead of a wooden green chuchu. "Yes!" He pumped his fist in the air as another ballon hit Kafei's shield. He pulled back again and shot another target. "Woohoo!" He was actually starting to enjoy it.

"Wow you're good." Kafei called to him.

"Thanks!" He shot a couple more targets.

Suddenly, the cart stopped, sending Kafei and Link flying out of it. They screamed and hit the floor, more like splashed because they were covered in water. They both groaned in pain. Kafei shoved Link off of him and sat up, rubbing his head.

"So." Taler had appeared at the end of the track. "How was it?"

Kafei and Link both glared intently at him. "Give us that paper! Now!"

* * *

><p>"And that's why we're so wet..." Kafei explained to Anju as he and Link dried their drenched hair with towels. The entire time, Anju and the fairies were laughing hard at them.<p>

"I can't beleive you got tricked onto that by a bunch of kids! Wahaha!" Tatl fell out of the air and rolled around on the floor. Link thought about stepping on her.

"Haha..ha. I'm sorry. It's not funny." Anju put a hand over her mouth and tried not to smile as Kafei glared at her. But she couldn't help it. She made a muffled sound, then burst out laughing again.

"Yeah yeah yeah, laugh all you want." Kafei threw his towel onto the floor. "But if you ever see a kid and he asks you to follow him, don't do it. Do _not_ do it!"

Anju fanned her face with her hand. "Ok..ok." She cleared her throat.

Link and Kafei went to change their clothes _again _before setting out to find the next piece of the seal. Upon looking at their now crumpled map, they saw that they needed to head to the mountains. Link carefully folded the paper and stuck it in his pack. "That rotten little kid..."

"Don't lose that again." Kafei said, smoothing down his shirt.

Anju's grandmother wheeled into the room in a wheel chair. On her lap were a few pieces of wool clothing. "Come here, you two." She motioned for Link and Kafei. She handed them the clothing. "I made you both sweaters. It's cold in the mountains."

Link and Kafei examined the sweaters. She gave Kafei a brown one, and Link a green one. They were plain, not something a grandmother would normally make. "Well...thank you!" Link exclaimed happily.

"You two be careful now. Come back safely!" She then wheeled out of the room.

"Yes..." Anju rubbed her arms and walked over to Kafei. "Please come back safely..." She looked at him sadly.

Link stood there for a moment before grabbing both the fairies out of the air and going out the door. "I'll wait out here!" He called over the fairies' protests.

Kafei pulled Anju into a hug. He smoothed down her hair as she laid her head on his shoulder. "I will, Anju. I promise."

As he pulled away, he noticed a single tear running down her cheek. "You can come back anytime. If you want a warm meal, or a place to sleep for the night. Don't hesitate to come back."

Kafei wiped the tear off her face. "I will. This will not be the last time we'll see each other. I swear." He put a hand over his heart to emphasize. They stood for a long moment before Kafei finally broke away from her. "I guess it's time I should be going."

"Wait-!" Anju ran up to him and threw her arms around him. She crushed her lips against his and held him tight.

Kafei kissed her back for a few seconds, then pulled away again. "I will come back." He reassured her.

"Tatl, cut it out!" They heard from beyond the door.

"Hmph. Looks like they need my help." Kafei smiled at Anju one last time before exiting the house.

When he walked out, he almost jumped out of his shoes in surprise. "Link what are you doing!"

Link stared at him, flabbergasted, with Tatl and Navi shoved in a sealed bottle. "I couldn't take it anymore!"

* * *

><p>HAHA. Well this chapter was kind of...a filler I guess you could say? Meh I don't know what else to call it. I wanted to do a funny, kind of worthless chapter for the fun of it. Kind of like a side quest eh? XD I'll do a few more later on if you guys want me to!<p>

Well I want to apologize for the really quick updates...wait. I shouldn't be apologizing, it's a good thing, right? Anyway, I just graduated from highschool and I have literally NOTHING to do. So expect quite a few chapters and updates in the next week or so!

ENJOY! 8D

P.S. I pulled Taler's name out of thin air randomly so please forgive if it sounds weird. =P


	11. A Peaceful Village Doesn't Seem Right!

Kafei's New Mask

Chapter 11

"So...if I'm looking at this right, the next piece of the seal is _definitely _in Snowhead," Link said as he turned the informational paper around and around.

"How can you read it if you're moving it around like that?" Kafei tried to grab the paper, but Link pulled it away and nearly hissed at him.

"Well I can't read it anyway! It's in some sort of weird language, remember?" Link folded the paper carefully and stuck it in his pack. "I was just going by the pictures."

Kafei wanted to trip him for being such a smart alec. They were out of Clocktown, having left that morning, and heading towards the snowy mountains where the gorons lived. Link claimed that he knew most of them, and they would probably be more than willing to help them in their quest.

"You know something weird is going to happen..." Tatl remarked, sitting on top of Kafei's head. After a while, Tatl had taken a liking to Kafei. Instead of Link, that is. Link had Navi and the two fairies weren't quite fond of each other.

"Well...let's just hope it doesn't," Link said hopefully. He stopped to look up at the mountain, craning his neck to get a better look. "That mountain still looks pretty big. I thought now that I'm taller, it wouldn't be as big."

Kafei walked past him, giving him an annoyed look. "I'm pretty sure that doesn't work on mountains."

Link sighed and walked after Kafei. At least the was a 'path' to the goron village. They didn't have to trek over boulders or slippery ice patches. The gorons had made it pretty easy for anyone to travel. Though Link did fall in a snow drift once.

After only about an hour of walking, they made it to the village. "Huh. That was pretty easy. I was sure that we'd get attacked by monsters or something." Kafei remarked, scraping some of the snow off his legs.

"Don't say that! Then some really will happen!" Link cried frantically.

"Will you calm down?"

Suddenly, a huge boulder came crashing out of the sky, right in front of them! Only it wasn't a boulder, but a large goron. The goron sensed that something was in it's path, and stopped rolling. It lifted it's head to look at the travelers.

"Ooh? Who are you?" The goron said, standing up and scratching it's head.

Link and Kafei were pretty shocked at the sudden turn of events, and couldn't say anything for a good couple of seconds. Finally, Link snapped to his senses. "Um. Hi there! My name's Link, and this is my friend, Kafei. And we-"

"Link? That name sounds familiar!"

"...um. Probably. Listen, we're here to find this." Link held up the informational paper about the mask in front of the large goron.

The goron studied the paper for a while, scratching his chin ever so often. "You've got it right here! Why do you need to search for it?"

"Wha...not the paper! We're looking for what's on the paper! This seal thing, right here." Link pointed to the seal over the picture of the mountain.

"Ooooh. That seems pretty official. Maybe you should talk to the village elder, he might be able to help." The goron then proceeded to smack his face into the snow, and curl up again. Link and Kafei quickly moved out of the way as the goron began to roll down the mountain.

Kafei took the mask on his forehead and slid it down over his face, "I guess...let's go talk to this elder."

* * *

><p>"I can't believe this guy is still alive! He was ancient when I was here the last time! Do people live a really long time in Termina or something?" Link turned to Kafei once they were in front of the elder's house. Kafei shrugged and Link tapped on the door. Almost instantly, another goron opened the door. Though he was much too old to be the village elder.<p>

"Um." Link started. He wasn't expecting this younger goron."Is the village elder here? We would like to speak with him."

The goron stared at Link and Kafei for a while, making them nervous. "You want to speak with my father? Sure! He's right in there!" The goron stepped aside, letting them in.

"Your father? Then that makes you...that little goron from all those years ago! The one who was crying so much!" Link blurted out.

The goron was taken aback by his comment, and almost looked like he was blushing. "What! I don't cry!" He pounded on his chest like he was all tough. "Who are you anyway?"

"I'm Link. I-"

"That sound's familiar! Anyway, I have to go! Have fun talking with my father!" And with that, he stepped outside and was soon out of sight.

"These gorons seem to be in an awful hurry..." Kafei said suspiciously.

"Son? Who are you talking to?" A shaky voice came from the other room.

Link and Kafei walked into the room to see a very feeble old goron sitting on the couch. Link carefully walked over to him. "Hello, elder."

"Hello there young'n. What can I do you for?" The elder said, not really giving any notice to the two strangers in his house.

"You may not remember me, but I came you your village a long time ago."

"Hmm..." The elder held up his trembling head and took a good look at Link. "I remember a little boy, wearing green clothing just like yours...he came to our village long ago."

"Heh. Yeah that was me."

The elder motioned for them to sit on the couch in front of him. Kafei and Link sat down, with the fairies resting on both of their heads.

"He must be at least two hundred years old with all of those wrinkles, hee hee." Tatl whispered. The elder didn't hear her, but Navi sure did.

She whispered back harshly, "Hey! That was rude!"

"Oh quiet down pixie dust."

Navi twitched, and Link tried to stop her before she lunged at Tatl. But he was too late, Navi smacked Tatl into the air and they started yelling at each other.

"Hey! Go fight outside!" Link ordered. They had a lead on the next piece of their adventure, and he didn't want the fairies to ruin it.

Navi took a look at Tatl, seeing that she was about to attack again, and sped to the door. Not that she was obeying Link, but more that she didn't want to get beaten up. Angrily, Tatl flew after her.

"Should we...do something?" Kafei asked.

"They'll come back."

* * *

><p>Navi flew squeezed through the little space between the floor and the door out into the cold air. "Brrr!" She shivered, almost forgetting about Tatl.<p>

"Hey! Come back here!" Tatl came flying toward her.

"Yikes!" Navi flew as fast as she could away from the angry fairy. She sped around trees, over houses, and dodged chunks of snow falling from the sky.

Tatl was right behind her. Finally, she caught up with Navi and slammed her into the snow. The two fairies wrestled a little before Navi escaped and began to fly off again.

She stopped in mid air, causing Tatl to ram into her, sending them both back into the snow. "Wait wait!" Navi peered over the wall of the little hole they had created.

"What!" Tatl yelled at her.

"Don't you hear that?"

They were both silent for a moment, listening. After a few seconds, a faint sound was heard. "It sounds like crying." Tatl said.

"Someone's in trouble!" Navi flew off towards the sound, leaving Tatl behind.

Tatl was going to just stay there, but then she noticed a group of gorons looking at her. "W-wait for me!"

When Tatl finally caught up with Navi, Navi was hovering in front of the entrance to a large cave. The crying was coming from inside. "Someone's in there!" Navi cried worriedly. She began to fly inside, but Tatl grabbed her wing and pulled her back.

"It might be a trap!"

"Like you care if I get hurt!" Navi shook her off.

"Well I don't want to catch the wrath from Link if you get eaten or something!"

Navi 'humphed' and flew into the cave. Tatl sighed, and flew after her slowly. The two fairies illuminated the cave enough to see that it was pretty big. Stalactites and mites were everywhere, though they looked more like ice than anything. In fact, the entire cave looked like it was made of ice.

"It's so c-c-old in here!" Tatl shivered, and the light she put out bounced all around the cave.

"Shhh!" Navi commanded. The crying was getting louder. "I think it's coming from over there!"

They flew around the corner, and when the illuminated the room, they spotted a little goron cowering in the corner of the cave.

"Aww, it's a little goron!" Navi went over to the crying goron and hovered in front of him. "What's wrong sweet-"

The goron was suddenly spooked, and smacked Navi into the wall. "Ahh! Don't hurt me!"

Tatl laughed at the way Navi squeaked when she hit the wall. "Hey, kid. We're not going to hurt you. I think you'd do more damage to us."

The goron sniffled a few times, then gave Tatl a confused look. "Wh-what are you?"

"We're...fairies.." Navi explained, shaking herself off and flying over next to Tatl.

"Fairies?" The goron seemed to calm down a little when he realized he wasn't in any danger. "Like the great fairy?"

"Um...I guess you could say that." Navi flew closer to the little guy again. "Though we're much smaller."

The little goron laughed slightly. "Well I can see that!"

Seeing that goron was no longer upset, Navi decided it would be alright to question him. "What are you doing in here?"

"I'm...hiding."

"From what?"

"From everyone!"

Tatl and Navi were silent for a moment. Tatl spoke up, "Why? Do they want to hurt you? What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything!" He yelled, and proceeded to start crying again.

Tatl shrunk back a little bit as Navi glared at her. Navi cooed the little guy. "It's ok, sweetie! We know you didn't do anything wrong."

"R-really?" The little goron sniffled.

"Mhmm!" Navi was using the sweetest voice she could find. "Maybe we can help you if you tell us why you're hiding from everyone."

"Ok..." The goron got rid of his tears and began to explain. "Something happened, I don't know what, but everyone changed! I remember peeking out my window when elder and this strange mad were talking outside. The man was saying something to elder, and then elder shook his head and the man got really mad! He started yelling at elder! Then I could understand what he was saying. He said 'I will put a curse on your whole village!' But elder didn't do anything! And then it happened, everyone started to change! Even my mommy and daddy!"

"Well...how did they change?"

"They all acted really mean! Punching and bitting each other. They tried to bite me, but I ran away! It was like they were all possessed!"

Navi and Tatl both gasped at the same time. "Oh...oh no! Link and Kafei are at the village right now! They're in danger!" Tatl yelled.

"We have to help them!"

* * *

><p>Link smiled at the elder. "So you do know about this seal?"<p>

"Yes. In fact, I have it! It was given to me long ago. I was told someone would come along who needed it!" The elder shakily held up a hand and his son walked back into the room. "Son, would you please show these nice men where we keep that pretty piece of glass?"

"Of course father, right this way."

Link and Kafei followed him into a back room. "This seems almost too easy. Like something should have gone wrong by now," Link said.

Kafei elbowed him in the side. "I thought you said not to say things like that! I guess not everything has to be hard."

The elder's son opened the door to the room and let them walk inside. Inside the room was not the mask, but a large metal cage instead.

"W-wait...this-" Link tried to protest, but suddenly both of them were struck on the back of the head with something hard, rendering them unconscious.

* * *

><p>Oh dang! Well that's unfortunate! Omg what's going to happen next? Read more and find out! And leave me a review! My review bag is empty! -noms on an empty review bag-<p> 


	12. It's MY mask!

__Kafei's New Mask

Chapter 12

"Do you think it's time we consider having children?" Anju laid her head on Kafei's shoulder as they both sat in front of a window of their home, watching the sunset. The question did not startle Kafei. He knew they had both been thinking about the subject.

Earlier in their lives, it would have been strange to have children, even though they were both way into their thirties. Because of the terrible curse that fell upon Kafei, he was physically a lot younger than Anju. But as the years had passed, Kafei had grown again, into the body of a young, but suitable, adult. A good physical age to have children.

"If you think the time is right, my dear," Kafei answered Anju thoughtfully.

She hesitated, and sat up straight. "Well…maybe soon. But not too soon. I enjoy our time together." She looked over at Kafei and smiled.

Kafei smiled back at her. "I do as well." He reached out to touch her beautiful face, but suddenly his vision went blank, and was immediately replaced with a sight of a hard stone ceiling. He had awoken from a nice dream.

Kafei blinked a few times, and tried to sit up. A sharp pain shot through his entire body. He gasped loudly, and slowly reached his hand around to his head, to rub where the pain was coming from. He felt something wet, and realized that he was bleeding. Not majorly, but enough to freak him out. He tried again to sit up, and was successful. Though he felt a little uneasy and light. Standing up was out of the question.

"Uhnnn…where am I?" He whispered to himself. Looking over, he saw his companion lying unconscious on the floor next to him.

"Link…Link! Wake up!" But his friend was not moving. Suddenly afraid, Kafei did his best to scoot over to where Link was, and shake him gently. "Link!" Having no luck still, Kafei put his hand to Link's neck and held his breath. To his great relief, the man still had a pulse. Knowing that his friend was in no immediate danger, Kafei decided to try and find out where they were.

Kafei noticed the presence of a bunch of metal bars. He hadn't seen them before. Regaining some of his strength, he was able to get off the floor and stumble over to them. He put his hands around the bars. They were in a small cell in some sort of basement. Not quite a dungeon, though. It looked like someone had merely built a cell because they were expecting quick prisoners.

"I see you have regained consciousness." The voice startled Kafei. He quickly turned his head, and wished he hadn't. Through the blur of his dizziness, he could see a man standing on the other side of the room. Of course, it was Katal.

"You sure know how to make an appearance," Kafei said, trying not to panic.

Katal frowned at him, and walked over to the cell. At first, Kafei thought to back away, but decided to show Katal that he wasn't afraid by staying where he was. He tightened his grip on the bars and glared at the evil man.

"I honestly did not think that Termina had a man left in it. Or should I say, someone man enough to stand up to me." Katal lifted his head in curiosity.

Kafei tried to ready his weapons, but realized his gauntlets were gone. Knowing he was not going anywhere soon, Kafei thought he might get some answers. "Why is my mask so important to you?"

Katal laughed. "Your mask? Try _my _mask! When the ancient people of this land carved that mask, they had no idea the power it held. Carved from the scales of a fearless dragon, it would no doubt have magical properties. The mask came into my possession, and I soon realized I had almost unlimited power. I was a _god. _I had people literately at my feet, begging for mercy! But the gods did not like how I became equal to them, I guess., and I became embedded in the mask. All of my power was locked away, until that _hero _came to find me. He used the power of my mask to stop the world from ending, but in the process, the mask absorbed enough darkness for me to break free."

Suddenly, Katal got really angry and took a swing at Kafei. Luckily, Kafei noticed in time and ducked. "But arrrrrr! That stupid goddess just _had _to put a heavenly seal on it! I was stuck in that mask for another couple thousand years with nothing to look at but that stupid hero's decaying face, and his tomb! That is…until that captain of yours unearthed us. Taking the mask off the hero's face broke the seal, and I was finally free! But when I celebrated by killing the fool, _somebody else _stole the mask! With his fat head still attached to it! I don't know who it was! But it enrages me! And now, I have you trying to seal me back in!" Now, Katal was yelling. Enough that Kafei actually did take a few steps back to avoid being spit on.

He calmed down a little. "So I've been thinking…" He reached out and grabbed Kafei's face and pulled him up to the bars again. "Since I can't get this mask off your face to protect it, I'll just cut your entire head off!" He laughed insanely, like the idea of killing Kafei excited him.

Kafei tried to pull back, but he couldn't move. It was like his entire body was frozen. Now he was starting to panic.

"I wouldn't try to escape. I still have a little of my power left." Katal created a knife and put it up to Kafei's throat.

Something from outside created a loud bang, and Katal twitched. He waited a few seconds, and held the knife up again. Whatever it was banged again, and made Katal so angry that he threw the knife across the room and released Kafei. "What is that noise! It's ruining the moment!" He huffed and stomped outside to take a look.

Kafei was on the ground, panting and holding his neck. "That was…so close," He said to himself. He knew Katal was going to come back so he needed to find a way out _fast. _He looked around frantically, trying to find their weapons. He spotted them on a table on the far side of the room, but of course he could not reach them. "Ugh! Come on mask, please do something amazing to help me!" Kafei rubbed the mask on his face, hoping something would happen.

"Psst! Kafei!" Kafei gasped, thinking the mask was talking to him, but he realized that it was only Navi, hovering by the window.

"Navi!" Kafei almost yelled.

Navi flew over to him and bounced a few times. "I'm so glad you're ok! Is Link ok?"

"Yes, yes he is! But Navi you have to find a way to get us out of here! Now!"

"O-ok!" Navi flew around the room frantically, looking for anything.

"Here!" Tatl appeared in front of the wall, where a set of keys were dangling.

"Yeah! Bring those over here!" Kafei yelled excitedly. But Tatl stayed still.

"Um…Navi! Come get these keys! I'm going to go watch for Katal!

Navi flew over to the keys and snatched them. She gave them to Kafei who unlocked the door. He ran back over to Link and began to lift him off the floor.

"Uhhnnn…" Link moaned, finally starting to wake up. "What's going on…"

"Link! You're awake! We're trying to escape!" Kafei said to him. Link tried to move his arm, possibly to rub his eyes, but he cringed. Kafei picked him up and put him on his back. "I'll carry you, buddy. We have to go now!"

As Tatl flew back to them, Kafei was walking out of the cell. "He's coming!"

Kafei looked for a way out, and spotted the conveniently open window the fairies had come in. "We'll climb out the window!" Moving as quickly as he could, Kafei grabbed their weapons off the table. He helped Link out the window, and climbed up himself. The window was ground level, so it was easy for Kafei to climb out, and pick Link up again. Suddenly, he spotted the young goron that had been with Tatl and Navi. He stopped, but Navi reassured him.

"He's nice! I swear! Let's go this way!" She led the way to the cave the little goron had been hiding in. Luckily, it wasn't far away. Once inside, Kafei placed Link carefully on the ground, and then collapsed himself. He fell onto his stomach and gave a huge sigh of relief.

"Thank goodness that's over! I hope Katal doesn't find this cave…" He sat up again, and put his gauntlets back on. "But I'll be ready this time."

* * *

><p>After some time, Kafei decided that Katal wasn't going to find them. Link had finally woken up fully. He absent mindedly rubbed his head. "So uh...what happened?"<p>

"Oh you know," Kafei started, "We were captured, Katal tried to cut my head off, then the fairies came to our rescue."

"Oh…" Link shook his head. "So…what happened with the gorons? Why did they attack us?"

Navi answered for Kafei, "I think Katal did something to the gorons to make them mean! This little guy is the only one who escaped!" She flew over to the little goron.

Both Link and Kafei sighed. "So I guess they were lying about the seal. I wonder where it is." Link took out the paper again and looked at it.

The little goron looked over his shoulder. "Hey, I know where that is!"

"You do?" Kafei looked at his suspiciously.

"Yeah! When Elder found it, he knew it was important, so he put it in Darmani's tomb, so his spirit could watch over it."

Link looked over at Kafei. "If what he says is true…"

"It's true!"

"…Then we need to go there."

"Oh great," Kafei said, "More dead people."

* * *

><p>Yay new chapterrrr! So anyway, yay they escaped! Did you think Kafei was going to die! Lol of course not. XD Hmmm..I wonder what they will find in Darmani's tomb! ;D PLEASE REVEIWWWW!<p> 


	13. Dopplegangers

He Kafei's New Mask

Chapter 13

"Ugh...I am so glad we have these sweaters. The last time I was here, I was just wearing shorts and a tunic!" Link rubbed his arms to create some warmth.

Kafei wanted to give him an odd look, but he was focusing on the snow covered ground, and not slipping. "Link, I can honestly say that doesn't surprise me."

"...anyway, I'm pretty sure I remember the tomb being up this way...ah! there it is!" Link said, practically ignoring Kafei's statement.

Kafei stared up at the looming wall of ice before them. "Why would they put a tomb all the way up there? And how do we get up there?"

Link took a few steps onto the ice that sat in front of the wall. '_Hmm...this was broken the last time I was here. I wonder how sturdy it is.' _After a few moments, he figured the ice was strong enough. He jumped once, and came down on the ice. It didn't break. "Hey, I think this ice is thick enough! We can walk over it."

"Link, stop jumping on it! It's enough to walk over it." Kafei gasped and grabbed the air pathetically when Link suddenly fell through the ice. "Link!"

Kafei stepped on to the ice and felt it crack under his foot. He quickly stepped back. Kafei was frantically running around the outside of the little pond, trying to find Link, "Where did he go!" Navi and Tatl were doing the same, flying over the ice.

"He's under the ice! Do something, Kafei!" Tatl yelled at him.

"Umm...uhh..." Kafei was pouring over things in his mind on how to help his friend. Suddenly, he got an idea. He activated his trusty blades and stuck them both in the ice. He threw them all around the pond, making little cracks in the ice, and hoped that he wouldn't hit Link. Eventually the ice was cracking pretty good. Kafei retrieved his blades and stuck them one more time in the ice, breaking it the ice across the pond. Luckily, it was enough for Link to find his way to the surface. Kafei reached out and grabbed Link, pulling him onto the solid ground. Link was still breathing, but he was coughing up a lot of water, and shivering pretty badly.

"Gosh, Link. I told you not to jump on the ice!" Kafei patted Link on the back as he coughed out the remaining water from his lungs.

"O-oops.." Link chuckled. He looked over at Kafei who looked pretty mad. "Um...thanks for saving me."

"Anytime, _buddy." _Kafei sat back and sighed, now that the scare was over. "At first, I was wondering how we were going to to get up there, since there's no ladder or anything, but now that the ice is broken...there's less of a chance of us getting there.

The little goron that was traveling with them spoke up, "There used to be a ladder, but it's covered by ice now."

"Grea...achoo!" Link sneezed rather loudly. He sniffed and wiped his nose.

Kafei had proceeded to walking around the edge of the little pond, thinking up a solution. "Well...Link do you have any rope or anything?"

"Yes, actually I have this thing." He reached into his pack and pulled out the Hookshot he conveniently had with him.

Kafei gasped. "What is that?" He put his hands together in a curious manner.

"Well," Link started. He pointed the Hookshot at the top of the wall and shot it. It nicked the edge and fell to the ground uselessly. Link blushed and pulled it back in. "Whoops. Let me try that again." This time, it sank into the thick ice, yanking Link along with it.

"Brilliant!" Kafei clapped. "But how am I going to get up there?"

"I'll throw it to you! Don't let it fall in the water!"

"What? Oh, Link wait!" Link threw them hookshot at Kafei, and luckily he caught it before it fell into the ice water. Kafei stared at the contraption in his hands, a puzzling look on his face. "But...but I can't do that!"

"Kafei!"

"I'm not as physically fit as you are!"

While Kafei was throwing his fit, a group of Gorons had appeared behind him. He only noticed them when one of them grunted loudly. With a jolt, Kafei turned around too look at them. "Uh oh."

"Aaaah!" The little Goron curled up into a little ball and bounced across the water. Somehow, he was able to roll up the wall and join Link, and the fairies that had flown up there.

Kafei didn't have time to think, he closed his eyes and shot the Hookshot at the wall. It nearly missed Link's head as it whizzed past them, dragging Kafei along with it. As the chain was fairly close to Link, Kafei smacked right into him, causing them both to fall over.

"Ow..." Kafei whined.

Link wriggled out from under Kafei and dragged him to his feet. "C'mon let's go!" Seeing as the little Goron could get up the cliff, the older, much larger ones could too. They ran into the cave that contained the grave of the late Darmani, as well as various other Gorons. The graves were still standing and the same amount as Link had last seen them. The hot spring that was once under Darmani's grave was still bubbling out of who knows where.

"Ok? What are we supposed to do now? Is there some sort of miraculous thing that's going to suddenly fix all of our problems? Because we have _nowhere_ to run!" Kafei yelled frantically.

Link turned to look at the approaching group of Gorons. They had entered the cave with them. "Oh gosh. I don't know!"

Kafei held his hands up. "I surrender!"

"Don't do that! Stand and fight!" Link ran up to his friend and pulled out his sword. Kafei pulled out his own sword from the golden light from his gauntlets.

"Link...it's been nice knowing you."

"Stop being so negative!" _I don't really want to hurt the Gorons! What am I going to do? _Link thought.

Suddenly, there was a crash behind them. Link's heart nearly jumped out of his chest and into the steaming water, as he thought that more Gorons were coming behind them. Sure enough, a good sized group of Gorons had made their own way through the mountain, and punched a giant hole in the cave.

"Seriously?" Kafei yelled, "They're going through this much trouble to get us?"

But the new Gorons were not looking at the travelers with discontent, but the angry mob of Gorons before them. "There they are!" One of them shouted. A fairly large Goron curled into a ball and shot himself full speed at another Goron. Others followed. The Gorons seemed to be having a fight with themselves! Link and Co. were rather confused.

"Oh mercy, what is going on now?" Kafei asked, seeming as if he was about to lose it.

Link studied the battle intently. One Goron took his fist, and punched another so hard, it sent him flying out of the cave. There were so many of the Goron's that were curled up in their balls, that they couldn't be distinguished. In fact...Link thought that a few of them looked quite...the same. Like twins...or...

"Kafei!" Link exclaimed, suddenly realized what their problem had been all along. "They're shadow monsters! Disguised as the Gorons!"

A buff Goron managed to punch one of the shadow Gorons hard enough to defeat it, and it went out in a burst of black smoke. Triumphantly, he beat his chest like a drum and ran to the aid of another.

Kafei and Link exchanged a relieved a confident look, both knowing the others' thoughts. They didn't want to hurt the Gorons if they had been brainwashed or something of that sort, but now that they realized they were just ruthless, minions of the darkness, they could go all out.

Link watched for a chance to jump in. The elder's son, both shadow and real, were fighting with each other. It was hard to tell them apart. But the good son managed to get a hit that broke skin, and the shadow seeped the black smoke, and Link knew who his enemy was. He ran at the monster, yelling at the friendly Goron to move out of the way. He gladly did, and Link stuck his sword right in his chest.

"Deceitful monster, go back to where you came from!" He retrieved his sword and slashed again ending the doppelganger Goron.

"Thanks, brother! You got him!" The friendly Goron exclaimed, and bounced all fired up toward another shadow.

Meanwhile, Kafei was having his own little battle with a very,very tall Goron. When he first met his opponent, Kafei felt rather outmatched, being so small. But the size of the Goron made his moves rather slow. Kafei was able to easily jump out of the way every time he threw a punch. The Goron was getting angry with Kafei, dodging all of his hits, so he stood up straight and kicked Kafei a couple feet across the room.

"Guuh!" Kafei's sword was thrown out of his hand, and into the hot water of the spring. He flipped over on his stomach to see where it had landed, and the Goron grabbed his leg and pulled him off the ground. Kafei wriggled in his grasp, trying to escape before the Goron squashed him. He wished he had his sword, so he could defend himself.

Kafei's sword exploded in a burst of light and came rushing at him. Surprised, the shadow Goron dropped Kafei and jumped back. Kafei landed on his feet and squatted to cushion the fall. His graceful land actually surprised him enough, that he became distracted for a moment, and didn't notice the Goron raging towards him. Before he had time to react, the Goron kicked him in the back, harder this time, and he rolled across the floor before slamming into a gravestone. He let out a sharp cry of pain, feeling something crack. All of Kafei's light faded, and his weapon's dismissed.

Having just finished off another shadow, Link heard his friend yelp and looked over to him. "Kafei!" He gasped and ran to his aid, pulling his shield out just in time to block the Goron's punch from hitting them. When the Goron reeled back to punch again, Link threw his shield at it, smacking it in the face and making it stumble. Quickly, Link jumped up and ran to stick his sword in the soft under belly of the Goron. It took a few stabs, but it was finally defeated. It fell backwards, but burst into black mist before it hit the ground. Link ignored the shield he had tossed across the room _and _dropped his sword to aid his friend.

"Kafei! Kafei, are you alright?" Link kneeled down next to where Kafei was laying.

Kafei took in a deep breath. "I...I think so." He attempted to sit up, but the pain was too much. He ended up gasping and laying back down. "Scratch that...I think I might have broken a rib...or three."

Link looked back at the fighting to make sure they weren't in danger, but the shadow Gorons seemed to be running away, and the good Goron's were rejoicing. "Looks like we won." Link smiled.

"Oh yay..." Kafei said softly, still in pain.

The fairies and the little Goron that had traveled with them were the first to be at Link and Kafei's side.

"Oh no! He's hurt, what are we going to do?" Navi asked frantically.

"The hot spring would heal him!" The little Goron exclaimed.

"Oh, good idea!" Link said. He had experiences with healing springs before, and wondered why _he _hadn't thought of that. He put an arm under Kafei and slowly lifted him into a sitting position, despite his squeaky protest. "Do you think you can walk over there?"

Kafei put his arm around Link's shoulder. "With your help."

Link helped Kafei off the floor and they started to hobble towards the spring, when suddenly, a huge gust of the black smoke came rushing in the cave.

"Uh oh!" The cheif's son said, "No time for this!" And he grabbed Kafei and slung him over his back.

"Gah! Ow!" Kafei yelled.

"Come on, everyone, this way!" He and the other Gorons ran toward the hole they had made earlier in the cave. Luckily, Link thought to grab his sword and shield before running after them.

"Hurry, Link! Let's go!" Navi shouted after him. Link took one glance at the swirling mass before jumping through the hole, and thought he registered a glimpse of something familiar, then turned and ran.

* * *

><p>Thankfully to Kafei, the Cheif's son laid him down gently on the hard stone floor once they had escaped the black mass. <em>Oh...<em>Kafei thought, _This is really bad! I can't get seriously hurt at a time like this! _

"What do you think that was?" Tatl asked Link.

"I really have no idea...but I thought I saw something in the smoke." Link put his hand in his chin in a 'thinking' manner.

"Really, what was it?"

"I have no idea..." He repeated. He thought back to how, when they were running, the black mass had rushed right past them, like it was going somewhere.

Link looked over at Kafei, who was managing to get himself into a sitting position against the wall. Kafei noticed him staring and gave him a 'sorry' look.

One of the Gorons approached Link and said, "What are we gonna do, Bruddah? Your friend can't fight or even walk like this. And we have that thing chasing us!"

Gorons in the room had been conversing, but now they had all stopped to look at Link...like he had some sort of answer. Link looked around the cave, trying to think of one. His eyes stopped on Kafei again. Kafei opened his mouth to say something, but Link interrupted him. "No. I'm not leaving you." Kafei shut his mouth. It seemed as if that's what he was going to suggest.

"Um...I guess we could just try to find a way out. I'm not sure that black mass can see us...or what it was doing, maybe we can sneak out?"

"You wouldn't get very far."

It seemed like all of the air was sucked out of the room when everyone gasped, including Link. Link was fearing this would happen, and kind of expected it too. Katal had joined them. Instinctively, Link drew his sword.

Katal sighed, and flicked his hand, sending everyone, except Kafei, flying across the room. He made some sort of force feild appear, which Link bounced off of a Goron into. Katal was _not _messing around this time. He angrily stomped over to Kafei, who tried to crawl away, and grabbed him by the throat. He lifted Kafei off the ground and held him up in the air.

"This is it, you theif. I'm getting my Mask back _today." _

Frantically, and through a wall of pain, Kafei thought about how he could escape. Suddenly, he remembered that piece of the seal he had in his pack. He thought that if he grabbed it quick enough and applied it, the mask would give him some sort of cool weapon to get himself and his friends out of the sticky situation! That was a horrible idea. As soon as he fished it out, Katal snatched it and threw Kafei to the ground.

"Aha!" Katal held the seal in his hands and put it over his head. "At least I have this! If I can break it, maybe it will have an effect on you! Maybe it will explode your head or something."

Kafei cringed at the thought of his head exploding. He managed to sit up again, despite that fact that Katal might have just broken another rib. "I don't think...you can break it."

"Hmph! Well I'll just try! Maybe I'll break it over your head! Oh?" The seal clearly didn't like that idea, for it flew out of Katal's hands and headed straight for Kafei. Kafei didn't even try to move as it smacked him right in the face. It flung him back a little bit, and he skidded a few few across the floor.

"Gah!" He sat back up once it attached itself to his face. "I am so tired of this stupid mask, stupid pain, and you!" He pointed at Katal and stood up, but stopped his rant when he realized he was _able _to stand up. He felt around his stomach and chest, and felt some sort of chest plate instead of pain. The seal, and the mask, had healed him. Kafei looked up at Katal, and gasped in fear when he saw him rushing at him.

"Aaaaaahh!" Katal produced a sword and slashed at Kafei. He would have hit him too, only Kafei pulled out his own sword and blocked him. There was a series of cheers from the crowd behind the force field. _Oh...I can activate them both...at the same time! _Kafei thought. He was afraid with the armor on, he wouldn't be able to bring out his sword.

Kafei grinned at Katal as they held their swords to each others'. "I seem to be stronger than you again. Seems like that's happening a lot lately."

Katal grimaced and pushed Kafei off of him. "You _mortal, _I don't understand how this is possible. How could the mask possibly want you over me!"

"Hmmm...I don't know. I'm a better person, I guess."

That set Katal off. He put his hands out, producing the black smoke, and threw it at Kafei. Kafei was rather confused, as he didn't know what was coming at him. He squirmed a little bit, thinking about either putting his sword out or curling up in a ball on the floor. Thankfully, he chose the sword option, for _another _swordsman came busting out of the smoke. Kafei was so surprised to see _Himself, _that he punched him in the face.

The other Kafei fell back. Both he and Katal looked flabbergasted that Kafei had blocked their attack so easily. Though Kafei realized that the other Kafei looked different. He was much darker in color, and seemed to have less life in him. "What is this!"

"It's my newest creation! You like it?" Katal chuckled.

"No! I most certainly do not!" Kafei was rather creeped out at this...person.

The Shadow Kafei sat on the ground and stared up at Kafei. He smiled a sharp-toothed grin, and Kafei shudderd. Kafei had had enough. He stepped forward to slash at him with his sword, but Shadow Kafei jumped up, landing on Kafei's sword and knocking him over. He kicked Kafei in the chest, but apparently hurt himself on the chest plate, because he jumped back and looked rather annoyed. This gave Kafei enough time to jump up and counter attack.

Kafei swung his sword, catching Shadow Kafei's sword. Though he meant to do this. He raised his sword, and Shadow Kafei's sword above their heads and kicked him in the chest when he couldn't defend himself. Quickly he got in a swing, and hit Shadow Kafei in the shoulder. He made a strange noise and grabbed his seething shoulder.

"This is disgusting..." Kafei said. Shadow Kafei jumped at him again, and their battle continued.

Meanwhile, Link was banging on the force field, trying to escape. "If we could only find a way to get to him, we could help!" Link didn't like watching a fight, he wanted to be _in _it. Tatl and Navi were banging themselves against it too. Miraculously, Tatl was about to fly through it!

"T-tatl! You can get through! But how could you help?" Link thought hard. "I know!" He turned toward a Goron. "Did you see that thing Kafei put on his face? That's a seal! We came here looking for one, do you have it?"

All the Gorons stared at him blankly, like they had no idea what he was talking about. When Link thought that there was no hope, the Cheif's son came forward. "Do you mean this, Bruddah?" He brought out, from who knows where, exactly what they needed.

"Yes! This is great!" Link handed the seal to Tatl. She was able to hold it up and fly, but barely. "Take it to Kafei! He might be able to use it!"

"But Link, last time Kafei couldn't use them both!" Navi exclaimed.

"I know, but we have to try something!" He shooed Tatl away. She hesitated for a moment, and flew through the force field.

Katal noticed. "Oh, what is this?"

Shadow Kafei suddenly backed off and stood by his master.

Link called to Kafei, "Kafei! Maybe you can use it too!"

Kafei's heart jumped in joy. If he could use two weapons at once, and he was in a pickle, maybe the mask would let him use two seals! Kafei reached out to take the seal from Tatl, but she backed away.

"Tatl?" Kafei took his hand back in confusion.

"I...I..." Tatl sounded very shaky and confused. "I'm...so...so sorry." She flew _around _Kafei and dropped the seal in Katal's hands.

Kafei gasped. "What...what are you doing?"

Katal took the seal and shook it in the air. "Why thank you, my faithful minion!" He laughed, and Tatl shrunk behind him.

Link screamed at her, "Tatl! You...betrayed us? Why?"

Tatl shrunk back even more, not wanting to look at them.

Katal put both hands on the seal to secure it. "I'm surprised you didn't figure it out. But then again, you are _humans."_

Kafei scowled, and ran at Katal. "Give that back!" But Shadow Kafei stopped him, and threw him back.

"We'll be taking this!" Katal created some sort of portal and jumped through it. Shadow Kafei jumped in after him. And lastly, Tatl flew to the portal.

Finally, Navi said something. "I knew you were bad! From day one! You're a terrible fairy!"

Tatl left without saying anything. Once they were gone, the force field disappeared. Link was able to get out of his shock enough to run over to Kafei.

"A-are you ok? What about your ribs?" He was worried about his friend, but most of his mind was focused on the friend they just lost.

"I'm fine." Kafei said. He put his sword away, and then his armor. He immediately wished he hadn't. Apparently, the mask had only healed him temporarily. He fell to the ground again in pain, clutching at his stomach.

Link kneeled next to him. "Oh...I guess you're not fine."

"Link..." Kafei managed to get out. "What are we going to do now?"

Link sighed. "I don't know...but first we need to get you to a doctor."

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><p>Oh dear! That was unfortunate...and rather sad. D= Anyway, yay another update! I haven't updated in a while, sorry! But this chapter is fairly long so I hope you forgive me! ^^ PLEASE REVEIW! Thanks!<p> 


	14. My Best Friend

Kafei's New Mask

Chapter 14

Link sighed, bringing a hot cup of broth to his lips. His breath blew the rising heat across the cup, making a wisp of clear smoke fissile into the air. He took a big gulp, feeling the warm liquid rush down his throat. It mad him feel the sensation of warmth, but his body still felt cold. Not because of the fact he was sitting outside in the snow, but because the loss of a close friend was still fresh in his heart.

"Link..." Navi said quietly, sitting on his shoulder, "It's...gonna be ok."

Link nodded, and set his cup on the ground. "I know. It just hurts ok?"

Navi lifted off of his shoulder. "Link, she was just-"

Link turned around swiftly to face her, "Navi, Tatl was my friend for a very long time! She was with me the entire time I was here! She helped me!"

Slightly taken aback, Navi huffed and asked him, "And I wasn't? When you defeated Ganon, I was there! I stayed with you through that entire journey! Don't you love _me, _Link?"

"Oh..." Link frowned. "Navi I didn't mean..."

"I think you did! You seem so sad that she's gone! I don't think you were this upset when I left you!"

Link turned around, not wanting to look at Navi. "You wouldn't know. You weren't there." Before Navi could say anything, Link clenched his fists and started again, "The whole reason I even came to this world and met Tatl was for you! I was searching for you when I met the skullkid, and was placed under a horrible curse! Do you know how bad it felt to be in such a horrible situation and not have my best friend beside me? Well then I met Tatl. And yes, at first, she was not very nice to me, but she turned out to be ok. She became my friend."

Navi took a long time to respond. When she finally did, her voice was small and cracked. "Best...friend?"

Suddenly a loud shriek was heard. Link was so surprised that he jumped, knocking over the cup he had laid in front of him. The shriek had come from inside the closest building, and had come from Kafei. Actually glad that something had happened to break his argument with Navi, Link ran to see what was wrong with Kafei.

He pushed the large, Goron sized door open and stepped inside, slipping every few steps because of the snow clumped to his boots. "Kafei! Are you alright?" Link asked as he entered the room where the Goron doctor had been taking care of him.

Kafei was curled up in pain on his bed, clutching his chest and trembling. He breathed heavily, but managed to get a dark, "No..." out.

"What happened!" Link ran over to his friend and touched his shoulder, receiving an immediate gasp from Kafei. "Ack I'm sorry!" Link looked over to the doctor for an explanation instead.

"Oooh. The little Termian's body is too frail for my methods it seems. I am sorry. It seems I have broken a few more of his ribs on accident." He scratched his head guiltily.

Link's faith sank into his stomach. Now that Kafei was hurt even worse, it would be longer before they could get on with their journey. By then, Katal could hurt more people, and become even stronger. "What are we going to do now?"

"Well..uh," Navi started, "We could take him back to Clock Town. I mean...it's not like the seal is here anymore anyway."

As much as Link didn't want to hear her voice right then, she was right. But it was the question of how they were going to get Kafei there safely was what had Link baffled. "Kafei...is there any way you can activate your chest plate again? It could keep you healed until we can get you to a doctor uh..." Link almost jumped, turning to look at Kafei and seeing that he was staring right at him. He had stopped trembling, but had a strained look on his face.

"I can...attempt." Kafei moved slightly, and winced. He waited a few seconds, took a deep breath and began trembling again, this time because he was trying to activate his mask. It shone slightly, then died down. Kafei let out all the air in his lungs.

"Maybe he's too hurt..." Navi stated.

Kafei's eye twitched, and he held his breath again. This time, his efforts payed off, and the decorated armor appeared on his chest. Kafei sighed, or rather belted air out of his chest as his pain immediately faded. Though he was temporarily healed, he wobbled when he tried to get up. He felt very weak and completely out of energy. "I think I'll be ok for now." He straightened his body as much as he could and rested a hand on his chest.

Link smiled comfortingly at him. "You _will _be alright Kafei. We'll get you fixed up and then come back."

"That probably isn't necessary," Navi jumped into the conversation, "We have no idea where Tatl and Katal took the seal...or where they are even. But they're not here anymore."

Link sighed. "Oh she's right..."

"Well, can we worry about that later? I don't want to find out if this chest plate can only hold for a short period of time." Kafei said, rather annoyed. He wasn't looking forward to having to take the chest plate off at all.

"Yeah...right, sorry." Link walked past him to gather his belongings." Let's get going.

The gorons wanted to say their thanks to the now smaller group before they left. "Thank you for saving us. Saving us again, Link! Also thanks to you." The elder goron nodded at Kafei. "May good health be in your future, bruddah." They all stood outside the leader's house in the falling snow.

Kafei nodded nervously. "Thank you."

"Please be safe!" Link addressed the gorons. "Katal isn't here anymore, so hopefully you won't have any more problems...hopefully." He whispered the last word again to himself. There was no telling what Katal and his new sidekick would do.

The travelers began their journey back to Clocktown again, first making their way out of the mountain area. Navi flew above Kafei and Link's head excitedly. "Hey, let's look on the bright side! We wont be cold anymore!"

* * *

><p>"How are you feeling, Kafei?" Link looked back at Kafei who was treading behind him.<p>

Kafei had been staring intently at the ground. Link's words brought him out of his daze. "Hm. I'm feeling alright. For now at least. Well...this chest plate seems to be working just fine. It hasn't given out yet. I guess...it can withstand being activated for a while."

Link smiled. "That's great! Maybe you can just keep it on all the time. Then we wouldn't have to worry about you getting hurt all the time!" He chuckled lightly.

"Hey! I don't get hurt that often!" Kafei was able to crack a smile. Just a small one.

The tro had made it out of the mountains, the trip not being too terribly long. The sun was beginning to set, but they were close enough to Clocktown that there was no need for them to camp for the night. Their spirits were beginning to rise despite the chain of bad events they had been experiencing. Though it was a setback that they needed to even go back to Clocktown so soon, it was homey for them.

Whoosh! Link jumped back in surprise as an arrow whizzed past his head. Kafei put his hands out in front of him to prevent his friend from bumping into him.

"Link! What are you doing!" Kafei yelled, having not seen the arrow.

Link steadied himself and unsheathed his sword quickly. "Did you _not _just see that arrow come at us?" Link yelled, scanning his surroundings for the attacker.

"No! Are you going crazy! Link, we have to-" Woosh again! This time, the arrow almost hit Kafei. Having his mask already activated, Kafei bulled out this blades, ready to fight. "Uwagh you're right!"

Link and Kafei hit their backs together, not knowing where the arrows were coming from. There were only two of them, but this way they could see what was coming at them from two different angles. "Show yourself!" Link yelled out into the air. Navi hovered above both their heads.

The sound of a horse's neigh was heard suddenly, and Kafei and Link almost did not react in time. "Look out!" Navi yelped. From their left, a direction neither of them were facing, a horse jumped at them. Just in time, they leaped out of the way so the horse could pass. It's rider reached into the air and snatched Navi who had not moved quick enough. She gave out a scared scream as the horse stopped in it's tracks to turn around and run the other way.

The rider's face could not be seen, he was wearing a hood and a scarf that covered everything but his eyes. Those eyes shot down at Link for a split second, and the rider's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Though not wasting any time, he commanded his horse to run and sped off, taking Navi with him.

"No, Navi!" Link reached out to the empty air, like he could grab the horse and drag it back. He scrambled to his feet and ran a few steps. "Stop!" He screamed at the top of his lungs.

Kafei picked himself off the ground and steadied himself. "What just happened..." He rubbed at the back of his head.

"Navi was captured!" Link grabbed Kafei's arm and drug him a few feet. "Come on, we have to help her!"

Kafei dug his heels into the ground, more of a surprise reaction to being grabbed than anything. He hesitantly looked towards clocktown. 'No, Navi is more important right now!' He thought to himself. He nodded at Link, and the both ran off in the direction of the horse. "We won't be able to catch it!" Kafei exclaimed.

"I know!" Link choked. "But at least we can find where he's going!" 'I can't loose another friend!' Link thought back to their fight earlier. 'Oh Navi, I'm so sorry, please hang in there!'

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><p>FFFFFFFFFFF-! I'm so sorry I haven't updated! I started college a few months ago. Hnnn but that's not really an excuse because I derp around all the time on the internet. ;D Haha sorreh! But I haven't given up on ANY of my fics I promise 3 Please review thank you! ^w^<p> 


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